I 

7, 


STATESMEN 


MEN    OF   ACHIEVEMENT   SERIES 

TRAVELLERS     AND     EXPLORERS.       P,y 
General   A.  W.  GREELV,  U.S.A. 

STATESMEN.      l!y  NOAH   BROOKS. 

MEN  OF  BUSINESS.     15 y  \V.  O.  STODUAKD. 

INVENTORS.      By  P.  G.  HUBEKT,  Jr. 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 
(From  a  rare  photograph  taken  November  15,  1863.     Now  engraved  for  the  first  time.) 


MEN    OF   ACHIEVEMENT 


STATESMEN 


BY 


NOAH    BROOKS 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
1893 


COPYRIGHT,  1893,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S   SONS 


TROW    DIRECTORY 
ING  AND   BOOKBINDING  COMPAf* 
NEW  YORK 


IN  the  preparation  of  this  work  the  author's 
aim  has  been  to  present  a  series  of  character 
sketches  of  the  eminent  persons  selected  for  por 
traiture.  These  selections  of  subjects  have  been 
made  for  the  purpose  of  placing  before  the  pres 
ent  generation  of  Americans  salient  points  in 
the  careers  of  public  men,  whose  attainments  in 
statesmanship  were  the  result  of  their  own  indi 
vidual  exertions  and  force  of  character  rather 
than  of  fortunate  circumstances.  Therefore, 
these  brief  studies  are  not  biographies.  The  au 
thor  had  the  good  fortune  of  personal  acquaint 
ance  with  most  of  the  statesmen  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  period  illustrated  by  his  pen ;  and  he 
considers  it  an  advantage  to  his  readers  that  they 
may  thus  receive  from  him  some  of  the  impres 
sions  which  these  conspicuous  personages  made 
upon  the  mental  vision  of  those  who  heard  and 
saw  them  while  they  were  living  examples  of 
nobility  of  aim  and  success  of  achievement  in 
American  statesmanship. 


CONTENTS 


:'AGE 


I.  HENRY  CLAY, 9 

II.  DANIEL  WEBSTER, 39 

III.  JOHN  C.  CALHOUN, 69 

IV.  THOMAS  II.  BENTON, 91 

V.  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 119 

VI.  SALMON  P.  CHASE, 143 

VII.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 175 

VIII.  CHARLES  SUMNER, 223 

IX.  SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN,  .......  255 

X.  JAMES  G.  ELAINE,      .......  281 

XL  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD, 313 

XII.  GROVER  CLEVELAND, 333 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FULL-PAGE 

FACING 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,         ....     (Frontispiece.}      PAGE 

HENRY  CLAY, 9 

DANIEL  WEBSTER,       ........  39 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN, 69 

THOMAS  H.  BENTON,  ........  91 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 119 

SALMON  PORTLAND  CHASE, 143 

THE  STATUE  OF  SUMNER,  BY  THOMAS  BALL,  IN  THE  PUB 
LIC  GARDEN,  BOSTON, 223 

SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN,      ........  255 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE,        ........  281 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD, 313 

PRESIDENT  GROVER  CLEVELAND,         .....  333 

ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   THE   TEXT 

PAGE 

THE  HOUSE  IN  WHICH  HENRY  CLAY  WAS  BORN,      .        .12 

THE  SCHOOLHOUSE  OF  THE  SLASHES,         .        .        .  15 

HENRY  CLAY  BETWEEN  THIRTY  AND  FORTY,    ...  19 

CLAY'S  TOMB  AT  LEXINGTON,  KY., 36 

HENRY  CLAY'S  BED,  USED  BY  HIM  FOR  FIFTY  YEARS,       .  37 
HOUSE  WHERE  WEBSTER  WAS  BORN  AT  SALISBURY  (NOW 

FRANKLIN),  N.  H., 40 

WEBSTER  WHEN  A  YOUNG  MAN, 43 

WEBSTER  IN  FISHING  COSTUME, 46 

WEBSTER'S  HOME  AT  MARSHFIELD,   MASS.,  53 

THE  WEBSTER  STATUE  IN  CENTRAL  PARK,  NEW  YORK,   .  58 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  7 

I'AGE 

WEBSTER'S  TOMB  AT  MARSH  FIELD,     .        .        .  .68 

CALHOUN  IN  EARLY  LIFE, 70 

CALHOUN'S  HOME  AT  FORT  HILL,   S.  C,  .         .         .         .  73 

CALHOUN'S  LIBRARY  AND  OFFICE, 84 

JOINING  OF  THE  CENTRAL  AND  UNION  PACIFIC,        .         .  96 
THE   SUB-TREASURY    BUILDING    IN    WALL    STREET,    NEW 

YORK  CITY,  ....        .....  105 

THE  BENTON  STATUE  AT  ST.  Louis,          .        .        .        .115 

MR.  SEWARD  IN  EARLY  LIFE,     ......  127 

MR.  SEWARD'S  HOME  AT  AUBURN,  N.  Y.,          .         .         .  130 

THE  GARDEN  AT  AUBURN, 133 

THE   SEWARD   STATUE,  BY   RANDOLPH   ROGERS,  IN  MAD 
ISON  SQUARE,  NEW  YORK, 139 

THE  HOUSE  IN   WHICH  MR.  CHASE  WAS  BORN,  AT  COR 
NISH,  N.  H., 146 

THE  CHASE   HOME  AT   KEENE,  N.  H.— MONADNOCK   IN 

THE  BACKGROUND, 149 

EDGEWOOD   HOUSE,    MR.  CHASE'S   RESIDENCE  AT   WASH 
INGTON,  D.  C., 160 

MR.  CHASE'S  DESK  IN  THE  LIBRARY  AT  EDGEWOOD  HOUSE,  169 

THE  NEGRO-PEW.     [AN  ACTUAL  VIEW],     .        .         .         .  171 

LINCOLN'S  APPROVED  LIKENESS, 176 

LINCOLN'S  EARLY  HOME  AT  ELIZABETHTOWN,  KY.,          .  181 

LINCOLN'S  WRESTLING-BOUT  WITH  ARMSTRONG,        .        .  190 

THE  HOME  OF  LINCOLN  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,         .  195 
THE    ST.  GAUDEN'S    STATUE    OF    LINCOLN    AT   LINCOLN 

PARK,  CHICAGO,    ........  202 

STEPHEN  A.  DOUGLAS, 206 

GIDEON  WELLES,          ........  208 

THE  NATIONAL  LINCOLN  MONUMENT  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  ILL.,  211 
HOUSE    WHERE    LINCOLN    DIED    IN    WASHINGTON  — 516 

TENTH  STREET,  N.  W., 218 

DEATH-MASK  OF  LINCOLN, 221 

THE  BUST  OF  SUMNER  IN  THE   MUSEUM  OF  ART,   BOS 
TON,  BY  HIS  FRIEND,  THOMAS  CRAWFORD,          .        .  228 


8  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

I'AGE 

CHARLES  SUMNER,        ........     237 

THE   BOSTON    HOME   OF   MR.   SUMNER,   AT   20   HANCOCK 

STREET,          .........     243 

THE  RENDITION  OF  ANTHONY  BURNS,        ....     248 

SUMNER'S  TOMB  IN  MT.  AUBURN  CEMETERY,  NEAR  BOS 
TON,       ..........     253 

THE    TILDEN     HOMESTEAD,     WHERE    MR.    TILDEN    WAS 

BORN,  AT  NEW  LEBANON,  N.  Y.,          ....     260 

MR.  TILDEN' s  NEW  YORK  HOUSE,  AT  No.  15  GRAMERCY 

PARK, 265 

MR.  TILDEN'S  LIBRARY  IN  THE  GRAMERCY  PARK  HOUSE,     270 
GREYSTONE,  MR.  TILDEN'S  COUNTRY  PLACE,  NEAR  YONK- 

ERS,  N.  Y., 275 

BRYANT     PARK,     P^IFTII     AVENUE     AND     FORTY -SECOND 
STREET,   NEW   YORK,  AND   THE    SUGGESTED   TILDEN 
LIBRARY,        .........     279 

THE    BIRTHPLACE    OF    MR.    ELAINE    AT   WEST    BROWNS 
VILLE,  PA., 285 

MR.  BLAINE  AT  THIRTY  YEARS  OF  AGE,    ....     288 
WHERE  MR.  ELAINE  WENT  TO  SCHOOL  AT  WEST  BROWNS 
VILLE,   PA., .     291 

MR.  ELAINE'S  HOME  AT  AUGUSTA,  ME.,    ....     298 
MR.  ELAINE'S  WASHINGTON  HOME,  AT  17  MADISON  PLACE, 
WHERE   HE   DIED.  —  FORMERLY   THE    SEWARD    MAN 
SION,       ..........     307 

GARFIELD'S  BOYHOOD  HOME, 316 

THE  GARFIELD  MONUMENT  AT  WASHINGTON,    .         .         .     319 
THE  HOME  OF  GARFIELD  AT  MENTOR,   O.,        .         .         .     323 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  IN  1863, 324 

THE  GARFIELD  MONUMENT  AT  CLEVELAND,   O.,         .         .     328 
THE  HOUSE  IN  WHICH  PRESIDENT  CLEVELAND  WAS  BORN, 

AT  CALDWELL,  N.  J.,    .         .         .        .         .        .         .     338 

GRAY    GABLES,    MR.    CLEVELAND'S    SUMMER    HOME    AT 

BUZZARD'S  BAY, 342 

"TiiE  WEEDS,"  THE   CLEVELANDS'    HOME   AT    HOLLAND 

PATENT,  N.  Y., 345 


.'x-: 

/V     01 


Henry  Clay. 


STATESMEN 
I. 

HENRY  CLAY. 

WHEN  Abraham  Lincoln  was  forty-three  years 
old,  that  is  to  say  in  1852,  he  was  invited  by  the 
citizens  of  Springfield,  111.,  to  deliver  a  eulogy 
on  Henry  Clay,  who  had  just  died.  Among 
other  things,  Lincoln  said  of  the  man  whom 
he  had  idolized  through  life :  u  His  example 
teaches  us  that  one  can  scarcely  be  so  poor 
but  that,  if  he  will,  he  can  acquire  sufficient 
education  to  get  through  the  world  respectably." 
In  this  regard  Clay  and  Lincoln  were  not  much 
unlike.  Both  were  born  into  a  lot  of  poverty  ; 
both  rose  to  high  distinction  in  the  State.  It 
may  be  said,  however,  that  the  poverty  of  Lin 
coln's  boyhood  was  more  abject  and  his  lot 
harder  than  Clay's. 

Henry  Clay  was  early  known  as  the  Mill  Boy 
of  the  Slashes.  In  later  years,  when  he  was  a 
candidate  for  the  Presidency,  this  title  was  the 
slogan  of  a  hot  political  canvass  and  was  thought 
to  be  worth  to  Clay  a  great  many  votes.  His 
mother  was  a  widow  living  in  a  low  and  swampy 
district  of  Virginia  known  as  the  Slashes.  As  a 


10  STATESMEN 

lad,  Henry  was  often  sent  to  Daricott's  mill,  on 
the  Pamunkey  River,  riding  on  horseback,  with 
corn  to  be  ground  or  meal  to  be  brought  home 
for  the  family  of  seven  boys  and  girls.  The 
neighborhood  along  the  route  of  the  boy's  fre 
quent  travel  knew  the  future  statesman  as  the 
Mill  Boy  of  the  Slashes. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  when  Mrs.  Clay,  who 
was  left  a  widow  in  1781,  in  the  thick  of  the  war 
of  the  Revolution,  when  Henry  was  four  years 
old,  was  surprised  one  day  by  a  visit  from  Gen 
eral  Tarleton  on  one  of  his  raids  through  Vir 
ginia.  He  threw  on  the  table  a  handful  of  gold 
and  silver  in  payment  for  property  taken  by  his 
men,  and  it  is  told  of  the  widow,  that  as  soon  as 
Tarleton  had  gone,  she  high-spiritedly  swept  up 
the  coin  and  threw  it  into  the  fire.  She  might 
better  have  kept  the  money,  for  the  family  were 
very  poor. 

Many  years  afterward,  at  a  Fourth  of  July 
dinner  at  Campbell  Court  House,  Va.,  one  Rob 
ert  Hughes  gave  this  toast:  "Henry  Clay:  he 
and  I  were  born  close  to  the  Slashes  of  old  Han 
over;  he  worked  barefoot,  .and  so  did  I;  he 
went  to  mill,  and  so  did  I  ;  pe  was  good  to  his 
mother,  and  so  was  I.  I  know  him  like  a  book 
and  love  him  like  a  brother."  And  a  year 
earlier  than  this,  at  a  dinner  at  Lexington,  Ky., 
in  honor  of  him  by  his  old  friends  and  neigh 
bors,  Clay  said  :  "In  looking  back  upon  my 
origin  and  progress  through  life  I  have  great 
reason  to  be  thankful.  My  father  died  in  1781, 
leaving  me  an  infant  of  too  tender  years  to  re- 


HENRY  (JLAY  11 

tain  any  recollection  of  his  smiles  or  endear 
ments.  My  surviving  parent  removed  to  this 
State  in  1792,  leaving  me,  a  boy  of  fifteen  years 
of  age,  in  the  office  of  the  High  Court  of  Chan 
cery  in  the  city  of  Richmond,  without  guardian, 
without  pecuniary  means  of  support,  to  steer  my 
course  as  I  might  or  could.  A  neglected  edu 
cation  was  improved  by  my  own  irregular  exer 
tions  without  the  benefit  of  systematic  instruc 
tion.  I  studied  law,  principally  in  the  office  of  a 
lamented  friend,  the  late  Governor  Brooke,  then 
Attorney-General  of  Virginia,  and  also  under 
the  auspices  of  the  venerable  and  lamented 
Chancellor  Wythe,  for  whom  I  had  acted  as 
amanuensis.  I  obtained  a  license  to  practice 
the  profession  from  the  judges  of  the  Court  of 
Appeals  of  Virginia  and  established  myself  in 
Lexington  in  1797,  without  patrons,  without  the 
favor  or  countenance  of  the  great  or  opulent, 
without  the  means  of  paying  my  weekly  board, 
and  in  the  midst  of  a  bar  uncommonly  distin 
guished  by  eminent  members.  I  remember  how 
comfortable  I  thought  I  should  be  if  I  could 

O 

make  one  hundred  pounds,  Virginia  money,  per 
year,  and  with  what  delight  I  received  the  first 
fifteen  shillings  fee.  My  hopes  were  more  than 
realized.  I  immediately  rushed  into  a  success 
ful  and  lucrative  practice." 

What  were  the  achievements  of  this  poor  Mill 
Boy  of  the  Slashes  ?  He  was  elected  to  the  Gen 
eral  Assembly  of  the  Kentucky  Legislature  in- 
1803,  appointed  to  the  United  States  Senate  to 
fill  a  vacancy  in  that  same  year ;  again  elected 


12 


STATESMEN 


to  the  Assembly  and  chosen  Speaker  of  the 
House  in  1807  ;  again  sent  to  the  United  States 
Senate  to  fill  an  unexpired  term  in  1809;  elected 
to  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  in  1811,  and  five  times  chosen  Speaker  of 
the  House;  United  States  Peace  Commissioner 
to  Ghent  in  1814;  re-elected  to  Congress  the 
next  year;  retired  from  public  life  for  a  briel 


The  House  in  which   Henry  Clay  was  Bor 


period  to  retrieve  his  fortunes ;  returned  to  the 
Senate  in  1823;  Secretary  of  State  under  John 
Quincy  Adams;  again  in  the  Senate  in  1831  ;  re- 
elected  to  the  Senate  in  1836  ;  resigned  his  seat 
in  1842;  nominated  for  the  Presidency  in  1839 
and  1844,  and  re-elected  to  the  Senate  in  1849 
and  1855.  This  was  the  career  that  opened  be 
fore  the  lad  who  rode  to  mill  from  the  Slashes 
and  acquired  the  elements  of  a  common-school 
education  in  a  log  school-house  near  his  birth 
place. 

His  mother  married  a  second   time,   and   his 


HENRY  CLAY  13 

stepfather,  Captain  Henry  Watkins,  a  resident 
of  Richmond,  started  him  in  life  in  a  retail  store 
in  the  city  of  Richmond,  but  within  a  year  his 
bookish  habits,  his  divine  thirst  for  knowledge, 
and  his  astonishing  facility  for  acquiring  almost 
every  variety  of  information  so  aroused  the 
admiration  of  the  stepfather  that  the  lad  was 
found  a  place  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the 
High  Court  of  Chancery.  Here  was  where  he 
made  his  first  real  beginning  in  public  life.  He 
was  tall,  raw-boned,  and  lank,  with  a  countenance 
pleasing  but  not  handsome ;  and  he  was  clad  in 
garments  of  homespun  which  did  not  improve 
his  personal  appearance  in  the  eyes  of  the  town 
lads  among  whom  he  took  his  place  at  a  desk 
where  he  began  copying  papers. 

Later  on,  when  he  left  Richmond  to  seek  his 
fortune  in  Kentucky,  then  the  Far  West  of  the 

J  7 

country,  Clay  did  not  make  his  way  into  condi 
tions  of  very  high  civilization.  Kentucky  was 
still  known  as  the  "  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground  " 
of  Daniel  Boone  and  the  wild  aborigines  whom 
he  fought ;  and  although  the  city  of  Lexington 
was  a  centre  of  social  enlightenment  for  those 
days  and  in  those  regions,  it  was,  as  compared 
with  Richmond,  a  crude  and  unkempt  com 
munity.  Some  years  later,  in  1814,  Amos  Ken 
dall,  who  had  migrated  from  New  England  to 
Kentucky  in  search  of  profitable  employment, 
wrote  in  his  diary :  "  I  have,  I  think,  learned  the 
way  to  be  popular  in  Kentucky,  but  do  not  as 
yet  put  in  it  practice.  Drink  whiskey  and  talk 
loud  with  the  fullest  confidence  and  you  will 


14  STATESMEN 

hardly  fail  of  being  called  a  clever  fellow." 
But  through  all  these  early  and  boisterous 
scenes  of  Clay's  life  we  find  him  reading — per 
petually  reading.  As  he,  himself,  has  said,  he 
lacked  that  scholarly  discipline  and  system  of 
acquiring  knowledge  which  is  essential  to  the 
best  mental  training ;  but  he  absorbed  knowl 
edge  with  great  avidity  and  certainly  did  make 
the  most  of  his  opportunities.  Through  life, 
however,  Henry  Clay  appears  to  have  been 
somewhat  superficial,  and  those  who  have  stud 
ied  his  character  and  have  noted  how  great  were 
his  attainments,  and  with  what  skill  his  genius 
seized  upon  such  stores  of  learning  as  he  had, 
must  needs  regret  that  so  great  a  mind  could  not 
have  been  more  thoroughly  trained  and  better 
equipped  for  the  great  duties  which  Henry  Clay 
in  his  lifetime  undertook.  His  appeared  to  be  a 
mental  disposition  of  intuitions  and  instincts. 
He  felt  rather  than  knew ;  he  divined  men's 
thoughts  and  purposes,  and  his  great  eloquence 
was  always  directed  to  their  imaginations,  their 
prejudices,  and  their  passions,  rather  than  to 
their  understanding. 

As  a  jury  lawyer  he  was  always  eminently 
successful.  His  eloquence,  especially  in  his 
early  life  in  Kentucky,  was  regarded  as  some 
thing  phenomenal,  and  it  is  said  of  him  that  no 
malefactor  who  had  him  for  a  defender  was  ever 
convicted.  His  presence  was  commanding,  his 
figure  tall,  graceful,  and  distinguished.  His  ges 
tures  were  large  and  sweeping,  and  his  manner 
of  address  was  broad  and  free.  His  voice  was 


HENRY  CLAY 


15 


melodious,  with  a  prodigious  range,  sinking  into 
the  lowest  basso-profundo  or  rising  in  shrill  and 
almost  feminine  notes.     The  music  of  his  voice 
is  represented  as  being  something  wonderful. 
Most  of  his  early  practice  was  in  the  criminal 


xJVi    , 

;fe<:' 


1 


Jpif 

*~-BW-^==*=.  ..:id>»*-. :::: 


The  School-house  of  the  Slashes. 


courts  of  Kentucky,  and  the  most  remarkable  of 
these  cases  was  one  in  which  Clay  was  engaged 
to  defend  a  Mrs.  Phelps,  wife  of  a  respectable 
farmer,  who  was  accused  of  the  crime  of  murder, 
having  killed  her  sister-in-law,  Miss  Phelps,  with 
a  musket,  which  in  a  moment  of  passion  she 
seized  and  fired,  aiming  at  her  victim's  head.  It 
was  impossible  to  deny  that  Mrs.  Phelps  had 


10  STATEMEN 

killed  Miss  Phelps,  but  the  criminal  was  a  wom 
an  of  a  respectable  family,  the  wife  of  a  respect 
able  man,  and  never  before  accused  of  any  fault. 
Clay's  theory  was  that  the  deed  had  been  com 
mitted  in  a  moment  of  "  temporary  delirium," 
and  on  that  plea  the  jury,  whose  judgment  had 
been  confused  by  the  extraordinary  plea  of  the 
advocate,  found  that  the  woman  was  not  sane 
enough  to  be  hanged,  but  was  insane  enough  to 
be  kept  in  jail  for  a  short  time.  This  is  proba 
bly  the  first  instance  of  u  temporary  insanity  " 
being  used  in  the  criminal  courts  of  the  United 
States  to  secure  the  acquittal  of  an  undoubted 
murderer.  In  another  case,  that  of  one  Willis, 
of  Fayette  County,  accused  of  a  murder  of  pe 
culiar  atrocity,  Clay  succeeded  in  dividing  the 
jury  so  that  they  could  not  agree,  and  the  de 
fendant  escaped  conviction.  At  the  second  trial 
of  Willis,  Clay  argued  that  his  client  had  once 
been  put  in  peril  for  his  life  and  under  the  con 
stitution  of  the  State  could  not  be  placed  in 
jeopardy  a  second  time.  This  being  new  doc 
trine  to  the  Court,  Clay  was  forbidden  to  proceed 
on  that  line  of  argument,  whereupon  the  young 
lawyer  solemnly  gathered  up  his  papers  and 
stalked  out  of  the  room,  throwing  upon  the 
Court  in  grave  tones  the  responsibility  of  deny 
ing  his  just  rights  to  a  man  on  trial  for  his  life. 
The  Court,  astounded  by  this  unexpected  turn  of 
affairs,  sent  a  messenger  after  Clay,  who  gra 
ciously  returned  and  secured  from  the  jury  a 
verdict  of  not  guilty.  Years  afterward,  the  cul 
prit  whom  Clay  had  defended  so  successfully, 


HENRY  CLAY  17 

met  his  counsel,  being  intoxicated,  and  cried, 
"  Here  comes  Mr.  Clay,  who  saved  my  life." 
"Ah,  Willis,  poor  fellow,"  said  Clay,  "I  fear  I 
have  saved  too  many  like  you  who  ought  to  be 
hanged." 

Clay  excelled  in  sarcasm  of  finer  touch  than 
those  who  were  his  compeers  in  Kentucky  were 
accustomed  to  employ.  On  one  occasion,  when 
confronted  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  a 
General  Smyth,  of  Virginia,  in  a  long  debate, 
Smyth,  who  was  noted  for  his  prosy  and  long- 
drawn  speeches,  said  to  Clay,  "  You  speak  for 
the  present  generation;  I  speak  for  posterity." 
"  Yes,"  replied  Clay,  "  and  you  seem  resolved  to 
continue  speaking  until  your  audience  arrives." 
In  one  of  his  speeches,  giving  a  graphic  descrip 
tion  of  the  arrival  in  Washington  of  a  horde  of 
office-seekers  on  the  advent  of  Andrew  Jackson 
to  power,  he  said :  "  Recall  to  your  recollection 
the  4th  of  March,  1829,  when  the  lank,  lean, 
famished  forms  from  fen  and  forests  and  the  four 
quarters  of  the  Union  gathered  together  in  the 
halls  of  patronage,  or,  stealing  by  evening's  twi 
light  into  the  apartment  of  the  President's 
mansion,  cried  out,  with  ghastly  faces  and  in 
sepulchral  tones,  '  Give  us  bread,  give  us  Treas 
ury  pap,  give  us  our  reward.'  England's  bard 
was  mistaken.  Ghosts  will  sometimes  come, 
called  or  uncalled." 

Clay's  popularity  was  very  great.     Even  now 

it  is  a  tradition  throughout  the  Southwest,  and 

living  men,  tottering  on  the  verge  of  the  grave, 

recall  his  eloquence,  his  delightful  and  winning 

2 


18  STATESMEN 

presence,  his  gracious  ways  and  his  great  polit 
ical  disappointments,  with  feelings  of  mingled 
grief  and  enthusiasm.  His  affluence  of  phrase, 
his  resonance  of  language  and  magnificence  of 
gesture  gave  him  a  power  over  the  minds  of 
men  that  probably  has  never  been  equalled  by 
any  American  of  any  time.  His  noble  and 
generous  heart,  his  sympathetic  nature,  and  his 
exuberant  vitality  made  him  everywhere  a  wel 
come  guest  and  an  idolized  friend  and  political 
leader.  When  he  was  defeated  for  the  Presi 
dency  by  James  K.  Polk,  in  1844,  the  grief  of  his 
followers  was  so  great  that  in  those  portions  of 
the  country  where  his  vote  was  strongest  one 
would  have  supposed  a  great  national  calamity 
had  settled  upon  the  people.  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  one  of  those  who  idolized  Clay,  and  he  never 
forgot  the  profound  sorrow  that  overwhelmed 
him  when,  to  their  utter  amazement,  he  and  his 
neighbors  learned  that  Henry  Clay  was  defeated 
for  the  Presidency. 

Such  was  the  turbulence  of  Clay's  political 
career  that  those  who  are  old  enough  to  recall 
even  the  traditions  of  his  memorable  contests  in 
variably  remember  two  grave  charges  that  were 
freely  bandied  during  his  political  campaigns. 
He  was  held  up  to  public  execration,  especially 
in  the  North,  as  a  duellist  and  a  gambler.  His  first 
experience  in  the  duello  was  provoked  by  the 
insulting  conduct  of  Colonel  Joseph  Hamilton 
Daviess,  one  of  the  magnates  of  Kentucky,  who 
was  then  District  Attorney  of  the  United  States. 
In  the  course  of  a  suit  in  which  Clay  defended  a 


Henry  Clay  between  Thirty  and   Forty. 
(Engraved  by  D.  Nichols,  from  a  miniature  in  possession  of  John  M.  Clay,  Esq. 


20  STATEtiMEX 

man  who  had  provoked  the  \vrath  oi  Daviess, 
Clay  was  notified  by  Daviess  that  he  had  better 
desist  from  his  defence.  Clay  promptly  replied 
that  he  would  permit  no  one  to  dictate  to  him  as 
to  the  performance  of  his  duty  and  that  he  "  held 
himself  responsible"  after  the  manner  of  the 
code.  Daviess  sent  Clay  a  challenge,  which  Clay 
promptly  accepted.  The  hostile  parties  had  ar 
rived  on  "  the  field  of  honor  "  when  friends  in 
terfered  and  brought  about  an  amicable  settle 
ment  without  bloodshed.  A  more  serious  affair 
was  that  with  Humphrey  Marshall,  who  de 
nounced  Clay's  first  efforts  in  favor  of  a  protec 
tive  tariff  as  the  "  claptrap  of  a  demagogue."  A 
fierce  altercation  ensued,  challenges  were  ex 
changed,  and  the  two  men  actually  did  meet  on 
the  field  of  battle  and  both  combatants  were 
slightly  wounded  before  the  seconds  could  inter 
fere  to  prevent  further  mischief.  But  the  most 
famous  of  Clay's  altercations  was  that  which 
grew  out  of  one  of  his  wordy  encounters  with 
Andrew  Jackson.  One  Kremer  had  printed  in 
a  Washington  paper  a  scandalous  charge  known 
as  the  "corrupt  bargain,"  in  which  Clay  was 
alleged  to  have  consented  to  throw  his  influ 
ence  for  John  Quincy  Adams,  candidate  for 
President,  for  a  consideration.  Clay  published 
a  card  in  which  he  pronounced  the  author  of  the 
story, "  whoever  he  may  be,  a  base  and  infamous 
calumniator,  a  dastard,  a  liar,  and  if  he  dare  un 
veil  himself  and  avow  his  name  I  will  hold  him 
responsible,  as  I  here  admit  myself  to  be,  to  all 
the  laws  which  govern  and  regulate  men  of 


HENRY  CLAY  21 

honor."  No  duel  came  out  of  this.  Kremer  was 
a  ridiculous  person,  of  whom  Daniel  \Vebster, 
writing  to  his  brother  Ezekiel,  in  Ne\v  Hamp 
shire,  said  :  "  Mr.  Kremer  is  a  man  with  whom 
one  would  think  of  having  a  shot  about  as  soon 
as  with  your  neighbor,  Mr.  Simeon  Atkinson, 
whom  he  somewhat  resembles."  And  Clay, 
eventually  having  been  very  much  ashamed  of 
threatening  to  challenge  poor  Kremer,  subse 
quently  expressed  his  regret  therefor  in  these 
words :  "  I  owe  it  to  the  community  to  say  that 
whatever  I  may  have  done,  or  by  inevitable  cir 
cumstances  might  be  forced  to  do,  no  man  in  it 
holds  in  deeper  abhorrence  than  I  do  that  per 
nicious  practice  (of  duelling).  Condemned  as  it 
must  be  by  the  judgment  and  the  philosophy,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  religion,  of  every  thinking 
man,  it  is  an  affair  of  feeling  about  which  we 
cannot,  although  we  should,  reason."  Never 
theless  Clay  actually  did  later  than  this  meet  on 
the  field  of  battle  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke. 
During  the  celebrated  debate  on  the  Panama 
Congress,  in  Adams's  administration,  Randolph, 
with  his  usual  boldness  of  vituperation,  char 
acterized  the  administration,  which  included 
Adams  and  Clay,  as  the  "  coalition  of  Blifil  and 
Black  George — the  combination  unheard  of  until 
now  of  the  Puritan  with  the  blackleg."  That 
Clay  should  fairly  boil  over  with  wrath  when 
he  heard  this  is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  He  chal 
lenged  Randolph,  and  the  two  men  met,  ex 
changed  shots,  and  both  missed.  Randolph,  it  is 
said,  was  dressed  in  a  loose  flowing  coat,  and  no 


22  STATESMEN 

one  could  say  where  in  its  voluminous  folds 
Randolph's  spare  and  attenuated  body  was  dis 
posed.  A  bullet  touched  the  coat.  At  the  second 
hre  Clay's  bullet  inflicted  a  wound  in  the  gar 
ment,  whereupon  Randolph  fired  his  pistol  into 
the  air  and  said,  "  I  do  not  hre  at  you,  Mr.  Clay," 
and  then  they  shook  hands  and  were  again 
friends.  It  should  be  remembered  that  all  these 
things  happened  in  the  early  part  of  the  present 
century  when  "  the  code  "  ruled  throughout  the 
Southern  and  Western  States  and  a  hostile  en 
counter  on  the  "  field  of  honor"  was  a  much  less 
notable  or  even  ridiculous  affair  than  it  would 
be  in  these  later  and  more  peaceful  days. 

As  I  have  just  intimated,  when  the  storms  of 
slander  whirled  upon  the  head  of  this  gallant 
"  Harry  of  the  West,"  the  charge  of  gaming  was 
one  of  the  most  effective  weapons  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  endeavored  to  beat  clown  the  popu 
larity  of  the  gallant  Kentuckian  in  the  North 
ern  States.  I  remember  to  have  seen,  when  a 
lad,  a  coarse  wood-cut  with  which  the  New 
England  States  were  flooded  during  the  cam 
paign  of  1844,  when  Clay  and  Frelinghuysen 
were  national  candidates  against  Polk  and  Dal 
las.  Clay's  alleged  vices  were  held  up  to  public 
execration  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  virtues  of 
Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  who  was  an  upright  Christian 
gentleman.  The  cartoon  represented  Mr.  Clay 
seated  at  a  gambling-table  surrounded  by  the 
implements  of  the  trade,  with  bottles,  decanters, 
and  pistols  in  thick  array  about  him.  On  the 
other  side  of  a  narrow  partition  was  a  picture 


HENRY  CLAY  23 

of  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  in  gown  and  bands  preach 
ing  to  the  heathen.  There  were  indeed  no  limits 
to  the  vulgarity,  brutality,  and  libellousness  of 
the  charges  that  were  heaped  upon  Mr.  Clay's 
name. 

As  of  duelling,  so  of  card-playing,  it  was  then 
common  throughout  the  country,  and  gaming 
for  high  stakes  was  not  regarded  with  disfavor, 
especially  in  the  Southern  and  Southwestern 
States.  Clay  was  addicted  to  pleasure  and 
social  amusements.  After  he  had  passed  the 
severe  apprenticeship  of  his  studious  boyhood, 
he  seems  to  have  emancipated  himself  and 
thrown  himself  into  the  enjoyments  of  life  with 
a  certain  fierce  fervor  which  follows  a  reaction 
from  a  hard  and  barren  life.  William  Plumer, 
of  New  Hampshire,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Senate  when  Clay  first  took  his  seat  in  that  body 
in  1806,  thus  set  down  in  his  diary  a  very  fair 
estimate  of  the  young  Kentuckian's  character: 
"  Henry  Clay  is  a  man  of  pleasure,  fond  of 
amusements;  he  is  a  great  favorite  \vith  the 
ladies;  he  is  in  all  parties  of  pleasure,  out  al 
most  every  evening;  reads  but  little — indeed, 
he  said  he  meant  this  session  should  be  a  tour 
of  pleasure.  He  is  a  man  of  talents,  is  eloquent, 
but  not  nice  or  accurate  in  his  distinctions.  He 
declaims  more  than  he  reasons.  He  is  a  gentle 
manly  and  pleasant  companion,  a  man  of  honor 
and  integrity."  As  this  tribute  comes  from  a 
political  opponent,  we  may  be  sure  that  it  does 
not  err  on  the  side  of  liberality. 

In  the  diary  of  John   Quincy  Adams,  written 


24:  STATESMEN 

when  he,  Clay,  Albert  Gallatin,  and  others  were 
Commissioners  of  the  United  States  at  Ghent, 
occur  these  words :  "  I  dined  again  at  the  table 
d'hote  at  one.  The  other  gentlemen  dined  to 
gether  at  four.  They  sit  after  dinner  and  drink 
bad  wine  and  smoke  cigars,  which  neither  suits 
my  habits  nor  my  health,  and  absorbs  time 
which  I  can  ill  spare.  I  find  it  impossible,  even 
with  the  most  rigid  economy  of  time,  to  do  half 
the  writing  that  I  ought."  Adams  was  ten  years 
older  than  Clay  and  was  brought  up  in  the 
ascetic  and  thin  atmosphere  of  Boston ;  and, 
with  similarly  implied  censure  on  another  day, 
he  makes  this  entry:  "Just  before  rising  I  heard 
Mr.  Clay's  company  retiring  from  his  chamber. 
I  had  left  him  with  Mr.  Russell,  Mr.  Bentzon, 
and  Mr.  Todd  at  cards.  They  parted  as  I  was 
about  to  rise."  On  this,  one  of  Henry  Clay's 
biographers,  Mr.  Schurz,  quietly  remarks :  "John 
Quincy  Adams  played  cards  too,  but  it  was  that 
solemn  whist  which  he  sometimes  went  through 
with  the  conscientious  sense  of  performing  a 
diplomatic  duty."  In  another  chapter  of  Mr. 
Adams's  diary,  Mr.  Middleton,  of  South  Carolina, 
is  introduced  as  telling  the  story  that  Clay  neg 
lected  to  oppose  a  certain  bill  because  "the 
last  fortnight  of  the  session  Clay  spent  almost 
every  night  at  the  card-table,  and  one  night 
Poindexter  had  won  from  him  eight  thousand 
dollars.  This  discomposed  him  to  such  a  de 
gree  that  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  business 
of  the  House  the  remainder  of  the  session.  Be 
fore  it  closed,  however,  he  had  won  back  from 


HENRY  CLAY  25 

Poindexter  all  that  he  had  lost  except  about 
nine  hundred  dollars."  One  who  knew  Clay 
very  well,  Nathan  Sargent,  long  time  Commis 
sioner  of  Customs,  Washington,  says:  "When 
a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  Mr.  Clay  was 
denounced  as  a  gambler.  He  was  no  more  a 
gambler  than  was  almost  every  Southern  and 
Southwestern  gentleman  of  that  day.  Play  was 
a  passion  with  them;  it  was  a  social  enjoyment; 
they  loved  its  excitement  and  they  played  when 
ever  and  wherever  they  met,  not  for  the  purpose 
of  winning  money  from  one  another,  which  is 
the  gambler's  motive,  but  for  the  pleasure  it 
gave  them."  I  quote  from  Mr.  Colton,  who,  in 
speaking  on  this  point  says:  "  Mr.  Clay  never 
visited  a  gambling-house  in  his  life,  and  was 
never  seen  at  a  gaming-table  set  up  for  that  pur 
pose.  In  the  early  periods  of  his  public  career 
he  played  with  his  equals  in  society  for  the  ex 
citements  of  the  game,  but  he  never  allowed  a 
pack  of  cards  to  be  in  his  own  house,  and  no 
man  ever  saw  one  there.  That  he  was  once 
in  the  habit  of  yielding  to  the  seductive  passion 
is  not  more  true  than  that  he  always  con 
demned  the  practice  and  for  the  most  part 
abstained  from  it."  If  I  have  given  much  space 
to  this  often-repeated  charge  that  Henry  Clay 
was  a  gambler,  it  may  be  pleaded  that  to  one 
who  remembers  the  storm  of  obloquy  which 
was  hurled  over  Clay,  and  all  who  supported 
him,  something  should  be  permitted  by  way  of 
explanation  of  the  cause  of  that  now  historic 
commotion. 


26  STATESMEN 

Clay's  first  appearance  in  Congress  must  have 
been  significant  to  the  elderly  men  who  held 
their  seats  in  the  dignified  United  States  Senate. 
It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  noticed  that  this 
accomplished,  self-poised,  and  confident  young 
Kentuckian  was  not  yet  of  legal  age  as  a  Sena 
tor.  As  he  was  born  April  12,  1777,  and  entered 
the  Senate  December  29,  1806,  he  still  lacked 
three  months  and  seventeen  days  of  the  age  of 
thirty-three  years,  which  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  prescribes  as  a  condition  of  eligi 
bility  to  the  Senate.  His  first  beginnings  in  his 
career  as  a  legislator  were  characteristic.  It  has 
always  been  the  tradition  of  the  Senate  that  a 
new  member  should  hold  his  tongue  for  a  year, 
except  when  answering  to  a  roll-call  or  making 
some  unimportant  motion.  Clay  immediately 
plunged  into  the  debates,  as  a  matter  of  course. 
On  the  fourth  day  after  he  took  his  seat  he  of 
fered  resolutions  concerning  the  circuit  courts 
of  the  United  States,  and  followed  this  up  with 
sundry  important  public  measures,  one  of  which 
was  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  concern 
ing  the  judicial  power  of  the  United  States. 
With  utmost  freedom  he  took  part  in  all  the  de 
bates  and  astonished  the  Senators  with  pungent 
sarcasms  on  men  much  older  than  himself.  His 
first  speech  was  in  advocacy  of  a  bill  to  bridge 
the  Potomac  River  at  Washington.  Other  bills 
were  in  the  same  line  of  that  policy  of  "  internal 
improvements"  which  was  so  ardently  sustained 
by  Clay  throughout  his  whole  Congressional 
career. 


HENRT  CLAY  27 

The  young-  republic,  still  weak  and  exhausted 
from  its  long1  struggle  for  independence,  was 
being  harassed  by  all  the  first-rate  European 
powers  and  occasionally  nagged  by  some  of  the 
smaller  ones.  The  British  Government  was  par 
ticularly  offensive  in  its  insistence  on  the  right 
of  search,  and  American  grievances  in  this  direc 
tion  so  multiplied  that  within  a  very  brief  time 
over  nine  hundred  ships  were  seized  by  the  Brit 
ish  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  by  the  French. 
American  citizens  were  impressed  as  British 
seamen,  and  the  insolence  with  which  our  remon 
strances  were  treated  exasperated  the  young 
Republican  leaders,  of  whom  Henry  Clay  was 
now  the  most  dashing  and  brilliant.  Madison, 
who  was  President,  was  a  timid  and  vacillating 
old  man.  Henry  Clay,  now  Speaker  of  the 
House,  so  arranged  the  important  committees  of 
that  body  as  to  put  them  under  control  of  the 
party  anxious  and  importunate  for  war  with 
Great  Britain.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  he 
fanned  the  flames  of  rising  indignation  and  was 
ready  to  proceed  to  any  length  to  commit  the 
United  States  to  warlike  purposes.  He  took  the 
floor  of  the  House  to  make  speeches  in  favor  of 
placing  at  the  disposition  of  the  President  a 
large  army.  He  spoke  of  war  as  a  certain  event, 
and  pointed  out  that  the  "  real  cause  of  British 
aggression  was  not  to  distress  an  enemy,  but  to 
destroy  a  rival."  When  the  question  was  asked, 
"  What  are  we  to  gain  by  war  ?  "  he  replied  with 
ringing  emphasis:  "  What  are  we  not  to  lose  by 
peace?  —  commerce,  character,  a  nation's  best 


28  STATESMEN 

treasure,  honor."  His  voice  sounded  like  a  clar 
ion  call  throughout  the  republic.  Indignation 
meetings  were  held,  resolutions  adopted  calling 
on  Congress  to  take  action,  and  denouncing 
Great  Britain  as  an  insolent  tyrant  whose  pride 
must  be  lowered.  Clay  proposed  an  invasion  of 
Canada,  another  siege  of  Quebec,  and  an  ulti 
mate  peace  dictated  at  Halifax. 

Clay's  patriotism,  always  undoubted  and  pas 
sionate,  was  now  at  fever  heat.  With  his  magnif 
icently  dramatic  air,  he  cried  :  "  It  is  impossible 
that  this  country  should  ever  abandon  the  gal 
lant  tars  who  have  won  for  us  such  splendid 
trophies.  Let  me  suppose  that  the  genius  of 
Columbia  should  visit  one  of  them  in  his  op 
pressor's  prison  and  attempt  to  reconcile  him  to 
his  forlorn  and  wretched  condition.  Should  we 
say  to  him  in  the  language  of  the  gentlemen  on 
the  other  side,  *  Great  Britain  intends  you  no 
harm  ;  she  did  not  mean  to  impress  you,  but  one 
of  her  own  subjects  having  taken  you  by  mis 
take,  I  will  remonstrate  and  try  to  prevail  upon 
her  by  peaceful  means  to  release  you,  but  I  can 
not,  my  son,  fight  for  you.'  If  he  did  not  con 
sider  this  mockery,  the  poor  tar  would  address 
her  judgment  and  say  :  '  You  owe  me,  my  coun 
try,  protection ;  I  owe  you  in  return  obedience. 
I  am  not  a  British  subject ;  I  am  a  native  of 
Massachusetts,  Avhere  live  my  aged  father,  my 
wife,  my  children.  I  have  faithfully  discharged 
my  duty.  Will  you  refuse  to  do  yours  ?  '  The 
speech  was  concluded  with  these  burning  words  : 
"  No  matter  what  his  vocation,  whether  he  seeks 


HENRY  CLAY  29 

subsistence  amid  the  dangers  of  the  sea  or  draws 
it  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  or  from  the  hum 
blest  occupations  of  mechanic  life,  wherever  the 
sacred  rights  of  an  American  freeman  are  as 
sailed,  all  hearts  ought  to  unite  and  every  arm 
be  braced  to  vindicate  his  course.  .  .  .  But 
if  we  fail,  let  us  fail  like  men ;  lash  ourselves  to 
our  gallant  tars  and  expire  together  in  one  long 
struggle,  fighting  for  free  trade  and  seamen's 
rights."  There  was  no  withstanding  this  appeal. 
The  increase  of  the  aimy  was  voted  by  Con 
gress  and  the  war  spirit  rose  with  rekindled 
ardor. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  the  history  of  the 
War  of  1812.  After  a  succession  of  most  brill 
iant  naval  victories  which  shed  great  luster 
upon  the  American  name,  the  cause  of  the  re 
public  began  to  falter  and  men  talked  of  peace. 
The  diplomatic  mission  undertaken  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1814  by  Adams,  Clay,  Bayard,  Russell, 
and  Gallatin  was  to  treat  with  the  British  Gov 
ernment  through  its  agents  at  Ghent.  After  a 
long  and  wordy  engagement  between  the  com 
missioners  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States,  the  terms  of  peace  were  finally  agreed 
upon.  Clay  throughout  these  negotiations 
showed  a  certain  intuitive  knowledge  of  events 
that  were  occurring  behind  the  scenes  and 
which  were  utterly  unknown  to  the  world  out 
side  until  long  afterward.  As  a  fervid  and  high- 
spirited  patriot,  he  was  greatly  disappointed  by 
the  outcome  of  the  negotiations,  and  refused  to 
go  to  London,  where  he  expected  to  be  still  fur- 


30  STATESMEN 

ther  humiliated.  But  when  the  news  of  the 
battle  of  New  Orleans  (which  was  fought  after 
peace  had  been  concluded)  reached  Europe,  his 
crest  arose  once  more  with  pride,  and  he  said, 
"  Now  I  can  go  to  England  without  mortifica 
tion."  It  is  a  curious  incident  in  Clay's  career 
that  he  should  have  been  the  most  active  inciter 
of  the  War  of  1812  and  yet  be  compelled,  as  he 
thought,  to  "eat  humble  pie  "  in  order  to  con 
clude  peace  at  Ghent,  the  terms  of  which  he 
thought  were  to  be  dictated  at  Halifax.  On  the 
whole,  however,  he  was  satisfied,  and  a  year 
later,  in  a  debate  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  he  acknowledged  large  responsibility  for 
the  declaration  of  war,  alluded  to  the  fact  that 
the  republic  had  been  insulted  and  outraged  by 
Great  Britain,  France,  Spain,  Denmark,  Naples, 
and  even  by  the  little  contemptible  pOAver  of  Al 
giers,  and  in  answer  to  the  question,  "  What  have 
we  gained  by  war?  "he  said:  "  Let  any  man 
look  at  the  degraded  condition  of  his  country 
before  the  war,  the  scorn  of  the  universe,  the 
contempt  of  ourselves,  and  tell  me  if  we  have 
gained  nothing  by  the  war.  What  is  our  situa 
tion  now  ?  Responsibility  and  character  abroad, 
security  and  confidence  at  home." 

It  was  in  January,  1816,  that  Clay  became  in 
volved  in  the  long  contest  which  grew  out  of 
the  national  bank  project.  He  was  liable  to  a 
charge  of  inconsistency,  as  he  had  once  opposed 
the  rechartering  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  but  was  now  in  favor  of  that  institution. 
His  critics  have  said  that,  according  to  Clay's  ar- 


II EN  11 Y  CLAY  31 

guments,  the  bank  was  unconstitutional  in  1811, 
but  was  constitutional  in  1816,  owing"  to  a  change 
of  circumstances.  The  conflict  was  long  and  ex 
ceedingly  acrimonious.  Before  it  terminated, 
Clay  was  involved  in  a  bitter  contest  with  An 
drew  Jackson  and  with  his  successor  to  the 
Presidency,  Martin  Van  Buren.  With  charac 
teristic  self-possession,  Clay  proposed  a  radical 
change  in  the  payment  of  members  of  Congress. 
Their  compensation  was  $6  a  day  for  each  day's 
services.  He  introduced  a  bill  to  change  it  to 
$1,500  a  year,  the  law  to  apply  to  the  Congress 
then  in  session,  which  of  course  would  involve 
back  pay  to  members  then  in  commission.  This 
proposition  provoked  a  storm  of  criticism,  and 
Clay  for  a  time  suffered  a  temporary  eclipse  of 
his  popularity.  He  was  forced  to  take  the  stump 
in  Kentucky  and  advocate,  as  was  the  custom  of 
the  times,  his  own  re-election.  In  the  canvass  of 
that  year(i8i6)  Clay  met  in  his  district  an  old 
and  once  ardent  political  friend,  a  Kentucky 
hunter,  who  expressed  his  dissatisfaction  with 
Clay's  vote  on  the  compensation  bill. 

"  Have  you  a  good  rifle,  my  friend?"  asked 
Mr.  Clay. 

"Yes." 

"Did  it  ever  flash?" 

"  It  did  once." 

"And  did  you  throw  it  away?" 

"  No ;  I  picked  the  flint,  tried  it  again  and  it 
was  true." 

"  Have  I  ever  flashed  except  this  once  you 
complain  of?" 


32  STATESMEN 

"No." 

"And  will  you  throw  me  away?" 

"No,  no,"  said  the  hunter  with  much  emotion, 
grasping  Clay's  hand,  "never;  I  will  pick  the 
flint  and  try  it  again." 

Returned  to  Congress  and  again  chosen 
Speaker,  Clay  speedily  found  himself  in  an  em 
barrassing  position.  He  had  been  a  candidate 
for  the  Presidential  election  in  the  preceding 
November.  It  turned  out  that  Jackson  had  nine 
ty-nine  electoral  votes,  Adams  eighty-four,  Craw 
ford  forty-one,  and  Clay  thirty-seven.  No  one 
having  received  a  clear  majority  of  all  the  votes 
cast,  the  election  was  thrown  into  the  House 
of  Representatives,  of  which  Clay  was  Speaker. 
This  was  Clay's  first  great  disappointment.  He 
had  hoped  to  be  one  of  the  three  higher  candi 
dates  on  the  list,  which  would  have  made  him  eli 
gible  to  receive  the  vote  of  the  House  in  the  can 
vass  now  about  to  open.  Being  the  fourth  in  the 
list,  he  was  ruled  out;  and  now  he  was  regarded 
as  the  President-maker.  His  impulsive  tempera 
ment  naturally  felt  the  keenness  of  this  great 
disappointment ;  and  he  did  not  sustain  his  defeat 
with  much  composure  or  fortitude.  The  friends 
of  each  of  the  three  leading  candidates  courted 

o 

and  flattered  Clay,  who  was  supposed  to  hold  the 
balance  of  power.  His  predilections  were  early 
in  favor  of  John  Ouincy  Adams.  It  is  now  a 
matter  of  record,  although  then  unknown,  that  he 
had  expressed  his  intention  to  throw  his  influ 
ence  for  Adams  long  before  any  advances  were 
made  to  him  by  Jackson's  friends.  This,  how- 


HENRY  CLAY  33 

ever,  was  not  revealed  to  the  friends  of  the  other 
candidates.  As  soon  as  Clay's  intentions  became 
manifest,  Jackson's  friends  charged  upon  Clay 
that  he  was  a  party  to  a  corrupt  bargain.  This 
was  the  foundation  of  the  celebrated  "  Bargain 
and  Corruption"  scandal  which  agitated  the 
country  for  months  and  years  thereafter.  The 
assertion  of  the  Jackson  men  was  that  Clay  had 
agreed  to  support  the  candidacy  of  Adams  on 
condition  that  he,  Clay,  should  be  made  Secre 
tary  of  State  in  the  event  of  Adams's  election. 
In  those  days  the  Secretary  of  State  was  usually 
regarded  as  the  legitimate  successor  of  the  Pres 
ident,  in  whose  Cabinet  he  was  first  minister. 
Adams  was  elected  and  Clay  became  his  Secre 
tary  of  State,  but  in  that  place  he  was  exceed 
ingly  uncomfortable,  and  although  his  motives 
in  accepting  the  portfolio  of  the  State  Depart 
ment  were  absolutely  pure,  his  temperament  did 
not  fit  him  for  the  routine  duties  of  the  office 
and  he  pined  for  the  turbulence  and  excitement 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  which  he  had 
achieved  his  greatest  triumphs  as  a  statesman 
and  politician.  Returning  speedily  to  the  House, 
he  threw  himself  with  great  enthusiasm  and 
spirit  into  the  discussion  of  burning  questions 
then  animating  Congress.  Of  the  more  impor 
tant  matters  that  engaged  his  attention  then 
and  previously  we  should  recall  his  defence  of 
the  Spanish-American  republics,  his  so-called 
American  system  of  a  protective  tariff,  internal 
improvements  (to  which  he  was  sincerely  and 
uncompromisingly  devoted),  and  finally,  slavery 
3 


34  STATESMEN 

and  the  compromise  measures  growing  out  of 
agitation  of  the  slavery  question  during  his  long 
service  in  Congress.  He  was  identified  with 
many  measures  intended  to  compromise  with 
the  extreme  and  radical  views  of  statesmen  of 
both  parties.  Indeed,  in  his  later  years  his  best 
efforts  were  always  directed  to  the  adjustment 
of  differences  which  seemed  wellnigh  impossible 
of  settlement.  He  was  the  father  of  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise,  by  which  the  extension  of 
slavery  north  of  the  northern  parallel  of  36°  30' 
was  prohibited,  and  also  of  the  compromise  of 
1850,  the  support  of  which  was  so  fatal  to  the 
political  fortunes  of  more  than  one  Northern 
statesman.  This  disposition  to  compromise  gave 
him  the  title  of  "  The  Great  Pacificator." 

Through  all  this  strenuous  and  exciting  epoch 
in  his  public  life,  Clay  never  forgot  the  dis 
tressed  and  the  oppressed  of  other  lands.  His 
sympathies  went  out  not  only  to  the  Spanish- 
American  republics,  but  to  Greece  in  her 
struggle  for  independence,  to  Hungary,  and 
even  to  the  enslaved  Africans  of  our  own  coun 
try.  He  was  well  called  "a  Southern  man  with 
Northern  principles."  When  reproached  in  a 
Northern  State  with  being  a  slaveholder,  he 
instantly  offered  to  free  his  slaves  if  those  who 
reproached  him  would  undertake  their  main 
tenance,  and  through  all  his  life  he  was  a  con- 

o 

sistent  although  possibly  mistaken  supporter  of 
the  project  of  colonizing  free  and  emancipated 
colored  persons  in  Africa.  Up  to  the  date  of 
his  death  he  \vas  an  ardent  supporter  of  the 


HENRY  CLAY  35 

American  Colonization  Society,  and  perpetually 
referred  to  it  and  its  machinery  as  the  most 
hopeful  means  for  redeeming  our  country  from 
the  curse  of  slavery. 

The  great  disappointment  of  his  life  was  his 
defeat  in  the  Presidential  election  of  1844.  There 
was  reason  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  car 
ried  the  State  of  New  York  by  a  small  majority, 
which  would  have  given  him  the  election,  but 
the  Liberty  party,  representing  the  abolition 
sentiment  of  the  State,  had  now  become  suf 
ficiently  strong  to  assert  itself  and  to  divide 
the  vote  so  that  the  State  cast  a  majority  of 
five  thousand  and  eighty  votes  for  James  K. 
Polk.  Clay  was  deeply  mortified  at  his  de 
feat  and  complained  that  his  friends  had  cru- 
eliy  deceived  him.  His  prestige  suffered,  and 
his  personal  feelings  were  painfully  wounded. 
There  was  no  recovery  from  an  overthrow  so 
overwhelming  as  this,  and  his  later  years  were 
doubtless  clouded  by  gloomy  views  of  the  sin 
cerity  of  human  affection,  the  fallacy  of  human 
hopes,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  republic.  He 
had  said  on  one  occasion  that  he  had  "  rather 
be  right  than  be  President."  Doubtless,  he  felt 
that  he  was  right,  and  still  he  failed  to  reach 
the  Presidency.  Later,  and  while  he  was  still 
smarting  under  the  sting  of  what  he  believed  to 
be  undeserved  disgrace,  he  spoke  at  Lexington, 
Ky.,  in  favor  of  gradual  emancipation.  Among 
his  audience  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  had 
journeyed  thither  from  Springfield  to  hear  the 
great  Whig  leader  whom  he  loved  so  well. 


36 


STATESMEN 


Clay's  Tomb  at  Lexington,   Ky. 


Lincoln  was  greatly  disappointed  with  the 
speech,  which  was  written  out  and  read  and 
lacked  the  spontaneity  and  fire  which  Lincoln 
had  anticipated.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting,  Lin 
coln  secured  an  introduc 
tion  to  the  great  man  and 
was  invited  to  Ashland. 
The  disappointment  of  the 
speech  was  deepened  by 
his  intercourse  with  Clay. 
Long  afterward  he  said  of 
Clay  that  though  he  was 
polished  in  his  manners, 
hospitable  and  kindly,  he 
betrayed  a  certain  con 
sciousness  of  superiority  and  an  almost  offen 
sive  imperiousness.  This  deeply  wounded  the 
sensitive  soul  of  Lincoln.  He  felt  that  Clay 
did  not  regard  him  or  any  other  person  as  his 
equal.  This  lesson  added  to  Lincoln's  experience 
of  human  nature  and  was  referred  to  by  him  in 
after  life  as  a  disappointment  almost  as  wound 
ing  as  the  defeat  of  Henry  Clay  for  the  Presi 
dency. 

The  examples  of  Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster 
are  often  cited  as  proving  that  America's  greatest 
statesmen  do  not  reach  the  Presidency.  In  the 
public  career  of  Clay  were  four  sharp  and  pain 
ful  disappointments.  As  we  have  already  seen, 
he  was  defeated  in  1824,  when  Andrew  Jackson 
was  chosen  by  the  House  of  Representatives. 
Again,  in  1840,  he  hoped  to  be  nominated  by  the 


HENRY  CLAY 


37 


Whig  National  Convention,  but  was  distanced 
by  General  William  Henry  Harrison.  He  was 
actually  nominated,  but  defeated,  in  1844,  when 
Polk  was  elected.  Finally,  in  1848,  he  expected 


Henry  Clay's  Bed,   used   by  him  for  fifty  years. 

to  receive  the  nomination  of  his  party  convention 
at  Baltimore,  but  was  again  disappointed,  Gener 
al  Taylor,  the  hero  of  the  Mexican  war  (a  war  to 
which  Clay  gave  no  countenance)  being  the 
nominee.  At  this  point  Clay's  patience  broke 
down  and  he  refused  to  support  the  nomination 


38  STATESMEN 

before  the  people,  choosing  rather  to  sulk  in  his 
tent. 

Henry  Clay  died  in  Washington,  June  29,  1852, 
in  the  seventy-sixth  year  of  his  age,  preceding 
Webster  to  the  grave  only  five  months.  With 
lamentation  and  mourning  that  filled  all  the  land, 
the  great  leader  was  borne  to  his  beloved  Kejo- 
tuck^.  where  a  magnificent  monument  reared  by 
tEehands  of  his  admirers  marks  his  last  resting- 
place. 


Daniel  Webster. 


II. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

THERE  are  three  scenes  in  the  life  of  Daniel 
Webster  which  may  be  regarded  as  marking 
three  stages  in  his  long  and  wonderful  career : 

1.  His  father's  means   were  limited,  and  the 
narrow  circumstances  of  the  family  seemed  to 
restrict  his   boyish   ambitions  to   the  humblest 
walk  of  life  ;    but  his  father,  without  saying  a 
word  to  the  boy,  had  resolved  that  Daniel  should 
have  a  college  education  ;  and  one  day,  riding 
in  the  farm   wagon  to  the  town  where  the  lad 
was  to  be  put  under  the  tutorship  of  a  compe 
tent  teacher,  the  father  briefly,  almost  grimly, 
communicated  his  intentions  to  the  boy.    Young 
Daniel,  overcome  by  the  unexpected  good  fort 
une  opening  before  his  eyes,  laid  his  face  upon 
his  father's  shoulder  and  burst  into  tears.     The 
homely  homespun  country  lad  saw  before  him 
the  possibilities  of  a  high  career. 

2.  In  January,   1830,  while  he  was  a  United 
States  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  it  fell  to  his 
lot  to  defend  his  native  New  England  from  the 
attacks  of  a  representative  Southerner,  General 
Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  Senate.     It  was 
a  momentous  period  in  the  history  of  the  coun 
try.     That  reply  was  made  at  the  zenith  of  Web- 


40 


STATESMEN 


ster's  life.  It  is  the  place  of  all  others  where  he 
grandly  stood  forth  as  a  parliamentary  orator,  a 
master  of  eloquence.  The  world  even  now  turns 
and  looks  upon  that  historic  scene  with  awe  and 
admiration.  At  this  point  doubtless  culminated 
the  fame  and  the  intellectual  power  of  Daniel 
Webster. 


House  where  Webster  was  Born  at  Salisbury  (now  Franklin),   N.  H. 

3.  In  May,  1852,  Webster,  now  past  his  man 
ly  prime,  crippled  by  an  untoward  accident, 
stood  on  the  grand  rostrum  of  Faneuil  Hall,  in 
Boston,  an  entrance  to  which  had  been  previ 
ously  denied  him  by  the  city  authorities.  He 
had  not  long  since  lost  a  part  of  his  great  popu 
larity  in  consequence  of  his  course  upon  the 
slavery  question,  and  many  of  his  former  friends 
had  fallen  away  from  him.  Whittier  had  writ- 


DANIKL    WEBSTER  41 

ten  of  him  that  sad,  bitter  rebuke  contained  in 
the  poem  entitled  "  Ichabod."  Five  months 
later  the  great  Webster  was  laid  to  rest  by  the 
sea  he  loved  so  well. 

The  condition  of  the  country  at  the  time  of 
Webster's  boyhood  (he  was  born  in  1782)  was 
one  of  extreme  poverty  and  bareness  of  the  lux 
uries  of  life.  In  one  of  his  later  addresses  he 
said :  "  It  did  not  happen  to  me,  gentlemen,  to 
be  born  in  a  log  cabin,  but  my  elder  brothers  and 
sisters  were  born  in  a  log  cabin  and  raised  amidst 
the  snowdrifts  of  New  Hampshire  at  a  period 
so  early  that  when  the  smoke  first  rose  from 
its  rude  chimney  and  curled  over  the  frozen  hills 
there  was  no  similar  evidence  of  a  \vhite  man's 
habitation  between  it  and  the  settlements  on  the 
rivers  of  Canada."  School  facilities  were  few 
and  far  between,  and  sometimes  it  was  necessary 
for  the  lad  to  follow  the  schoolmaster  from  ham 
let  to  hamlet,  boarding  away  from  home,  in  order 
that  he  might  secure  the  primitive  education 
thus  put  within  his  reach.  The  hard  and  barren 
soil  of  New  Hampshire  did  not  yield  rich  re 
turns  to  the  farmers  who  struggled  for  a  living 
in  the  region  of  the  "  frozen  hills  "  of  which  he 
spoke.  His  school-days  were  days  of  privation, 
and  yet  he  made  great  advances  in  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  was  considered  the  quickest  boy 
in  school.  His  memory  was  astonishingly  re 
tentive,  and  he  seemed  to  have  considered  that 
a  book  was  not  merely  to  be  read,  but  to  be 
committed  to  memory.  lie  tells  in  his  diary  of 
his  gaining  the  reward  of  a  jackknife  offered  to 


42  STATESMEN 

the  boy  who  should  be  able  to  recite  the  great 
est  number  of  verses  from  the  Bible.  When  his 
turn  came  he  arose  in  his  place  and  reeled  off 
verses  until  the  schoolmaster  was  fain  to  cry 
"  Hold  !  enough  !  "  A  cotton  handkerchief,  on 
which  was  printed  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  colored  letters,  gave  him  the  means  of 
reading  and  fixing  in  his  mind  forever  the  words 
of  that  famous  instrument.  He  was  reckoned  in 
the  sparsely  settled  neighborhood  as  a  prodigy 
of  learning,  and  his  delicate  frame,  big  eyes,  and 
musical  speech  were  famed  throughout  the 
region.  Of  that  period  of  his  life  he  says :  "  I 
read  what  I  could  get  to  read,  went  to  school 
when  I  could,  and  when  not  at  school  was  a 
farmer's  youngest  boy,  not  good  for  much  for 
want  of  health  and  strength,  but  expected  to  do 
something."  He  tended  the  saw-mill  and  "  did 
the  chores  "  of  the  house  and  farm. 

His  brother  Ezekiel  and  himself  divided  be 
tween  them  the  humble  labors  of  the  home. 
Ezekiel,  who  was  Daniel's  best-beloved  friend 
and  brother,  usually  took  the  laboring  oar. 
There  is  an  anecdote  of  the  father  calling  out  to 
the  boys  who  were  playing  in  the  barn,  "  What 
are  you  doing,  Daniel  ?  "  His  reply  was,  "  Noth 
ing."  "  And  what  are  you  doing,  Ezekiel  ? " 
"  Helping  Daniel."  And  so  through  life  it  was 
Ezekiel  who  helped  Daniel.  On  another  occasion 
the  two  lads  were  allowed  to  go  to  a  fair  in  a 
neighboring  town,  each  furnished  with  a  little 
pocket  money.  When  they  returned  in  the  even 
ing  Daniel  was  overflowing  with  animal  spirits 


DANIKL    WEBSTER  43 

and  enjoyment.  Ezekiel  was  silent.  The  mother, 
inquiring  as  to  their  day's  doings,  finally  asked 
Daniel  what  he  had  done  with  his  money. 
"  Spent  it,"  was  the  reply.  "  And  what  did  you 
do  with  yours,  Ezekiel?"  "Lent  it  to  Daniel," 
said  the  elder  brother.  As  one  of  his  biog- 


Webster  when   a  Young  Man. 

raphers  has  said,  "  that  answer  sums  up  the  story 
of  Webster's  home  life  in  childhood.  Everyone 
was  giving  or  lending  to  Daniel  of  their  money, 
of  their  time,  their  activity,  their  love  and  affec 
tion.  This  petting  was  partially  due  to  Web 
ster's  health,  but  it  was  also  in  great  measure 


44  STATESMEN 

owing  to  his  nature.  He  was  one  of  those  rare 
and  fortunate  beings  who  without  exertion 
draw  to  themselves  the  devotion  of  other  people 
and  are  always  surrounded  by  men  and  women 
eager  to  do  and  suffer  for  them."  In  manhood 
he  loved  his  friends  with  a  love  passing  that  of 
woman ;  his  great  passionate  and  affectionate 
nature  knit  to  him  with  bands  of  steel  his  chosen 
friends,  and  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  some  of 
these  devoted  and  worshipful  ones  ministered  to 
his  wants  and  his  comfort  and  his  luxury  with 
unstinting  hand. 

In  his  biography  of  Webster,  Mr.  George  T. 
Curtis,  speaking  of  his  own  return  to  Boston  for 
a  few  hours,  while  Webster's  life  was  slowly 
ebbing  away,  says :  "  A  gentleman  rang  at  my 
door  and  called  me  out.  As  I  met  him  he  placed 
in  my  hand  a  thick  roll  of  bank-notes,  desiring 
me  to  convey  it  to  Mr.  Webster.  When  I  asked 
him  from  whom  it  came,  he  mentioned  the  name 
of  a  venerable  and  wealthy  citizen  of  Boston, 
who  had  learned  that  Mr.  Webster  was  dying, 
and  who  had  said  that  at  such  a  time  there 
ought  to  be  no  want  of  money  in  Mr.  Webster's 
house."  While  we  applaud  the  generosity  of  the 
giver,  it  is  impossible  to  restrain  a  feeling  of  pro 
found  regret  that  anything  should  have  made 
this  charity  even  apparently  needful. 

In  due  course  of  time  he  wrent  to  Dartmouth 
College,  where  his  rustic  dress  and  manners  pro 
voked  the  ridicule  of  his  new  associates.  He 
found  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  take  part 
in  some  of  the  exercises  of  the  school,  such  as 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  45 

declamation  and  so  on,  in  which  he  was  expect 
ed  to  engage;  but  he  speedily  developed  a  rare 
faculty  for  absorbing  knowledge,  and  not  only 
became  proficient  in  Latin  and  Greek,  but  read 
ily  acquired  ancient  and  modern  history,  and  be 
came  familiar  with  the  drift  of  public  events  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe.  So  great  was  his 
reputation  in  the  college  and  its  neighborhood 
as  a  speaker  and  writer,  that  the  people  of  the 
town  of  Hanover  invited  him  to  deliver  an  ora 
tion  on  July  4, 1800.  He  was  then  eighteen  years 
old.  This  was  his  first  public  performance 
which  was  printed.  It  is  characterized  by  the 
high-flown  language  of  the  sophomore,  and  was 
doubtless  received  with  every  demonstration  of 
admiration  and  applause.  He  denounced  France, 
then  unfriendly  to  the  United  States  and  under 
the  domination  of  Bonaparte,  whom  the  young 
orator  styled  "  the  gasconading  pilgrim  of 
Egypt.'*  He  was  graduated  in  due  course  in 
August,  1801,  without  either  special  credit  or 
special  mention.  The  straitened  circumstances 
of  the  family  made  it  necessary  that  he  should 
at  once  begin  to  support  himself.  While  in  col 
lege  he  had  added  to  his  slender  income  in  ev 
ery  possible  way,  and  he  now  accepted  the  post 
of  school-teacher  in  the  town  of  Fryeburg,  Me., 
considering  himself  a  lucky  young  fellow  to 
have  secured  the  job. 

Ezekiel  Webster,  who  appears  to  have  been  a 
man  of  extraordinary  parts,  manifested  a  dispo 
sition  to  follow  in  his  younger  brother's  foot 
steps.  After  many  anxious  family  councils,  it 


Webster  in   Fishing  Costume. 
(from  Peter  Harvey's  "  Reminiscences  and  Anecdotes  of  Daniel  Webster") 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  ±7 

was  decided  that  this  step  might  be  taken,  the 
good  mother  of  the  house  saying-,  in  answer  to 
the  remonstrances  of  the  father,  "  I  will  trust  the 
boys."  Daniel's  life  at  Fryeburg  was  a  hard  one. 
The  home  farm  was  heavily  mortgaged,  and 
Ezekiel,  who  was  now  in  college,  was  no  longer 
the  prop  and  stay  as  he  had  been  of  the  house. 
Daniel  manfully  carried  his  share  of  the  burdens, 
and  out  of  school-hours  copied  deeds  and  other 
legal  papers,  an  occupation  which  he  detested,  in 
order  that  he  might  give  all  his  salary  to  his 
brother  preparing  for  college. 

Ezekiel  Webster  lived  to  attain  eminence  in 
the  profession  of  the  law.  He  was  a  man  of  high 
talent  and  much  professional  learning ;  he  was 
in  person  and  physique  not  unlike  his  brother, 
the  "  godlike  Daniel."  He  died  very  suddenly 
in  the  court-room,  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  \vhile  ad 
dressing  a  jury.  He  was  then  only  forty-nine 
years  old,  and  had  he  lived  would  have  doubt 
less  reached  great  fame  as  a  lawyer.  Years 
later,  when  time  had  so  assuaged  his  bitter  grief 
that  he  could  speak  tranquilly  of  his  brother's 
death,  Daniel  Webster  said  of  him  who  was 
gone :  "  He  appeared  to  me  the  finest  human 
form  that  I  ever  laid  eyes  on.  I  saw  him  in  his 
coffin — a  tinged  cheek,  a  complexion  clear  as  the 
heavenly  light." 

Daniel  Webster  was  a  good  teacher.  His  dig 
nity,  even  temper,  and  firmness  commanded  the 
respect  of  his  pupils,  and  wherever  he  went  he 
produced  an  impression  upon  those  whom  he 
met.  Those  who  could  in  later  years  recall  his 


48  STATESMEN 

young  manhood  in  Fryeburg,  invariably  spoke 
of  his  imposing  presence  and  his  wonderful 
eyes.  He  was  known  in  the  village  as  "  All- 
Eyes."  He  devoured  with  keen  zest  every  book 
upon  which  he  could  lay  his  hands,  and  in  a  sin 
gle  winter  exhausted  the  resources  of  the  little 
circulating  library  of  Fryeburg.  His  memory 
seems  to  have  been  like  iron ;  an  impression 
once  made  was  ineradicable.  On  his  death-bed 
he  quoted  a  phrase,  "  The  Jackdaw  in  the  Stee 
ple,"  from  a  poem  of  Co\vper's,  which  none 
about  him  could  recall,  and  the  strangeness  of 
which  led  some  of  them  to  suppose  his  mind 
was  wandering. 

It  is  impossible  to  think  of  Webster  at  any 
period  of  his  life  as  other  than  the  grand,  im 
posing  figure  that  looms  up  in  history  and  in  the 
memory  of  the  few  who  survive  him.  His  form 
in  his  manhood  was  tall,  massive,  and  command 
ing  ;  his  face  was  rugged,  and  his  overhanging 
brows  were  projected  over  deep  and  cavernous 
eyes  in  which  gloomed  and  glowed  a  wonderful 
tropical  light.  There  was,  indeed,  about  his 
presence  and  in  his  habit  of  thought  a  certain 
Oriental  flavor  that  seemed  strangely  foreign  to 
New  England  and  to  the  cold  and  inhospitable 
climate  in  which  he  was  reared. 

The  costume  in  which  he  generally  appeared 
on  public  occasions  has  become  historic.  He 
wore  a  dress-coat  of  blue  cloth,  with  brass  but 
tons  ;  a  buff  waistcoat  cut  low  and  showing  an 
expanse  of  white  shirt-bosom,  and  on  his  nether 
limbs  trousers  of  black  cloth.  On  these  occasions, 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  49 

too,  he  wore  low-cut  shoes  and  white  stockings, 
and  about  his  neck  was  swathed  a  white  lawn  tie 
in  many  folds,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  time,  and 
over  this  was  turned  his  high  collar.  In  this 
garb  his  portrait  has  been  painted  many  times, 
and  this  is  the  outward  Webster  that  comes  to 
the  mental  vision  of  every  man  who  ever  saw 
him  in  public.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of 
him  as  being  at  any  time  and  under  any  circum 
stances  a  trivial  or  undignified  person.  He 
always  was  on  dress-parade.  He  was  always 
statuesque,  and  his  was  always  a  figure  to  compel 
respect.  It  was  said  of  him  that  when  a  stranger 
he  passed  through  the  streets  of  Liverpool,  Eng 
land,  casual  wayfarers  looked  after  him  and  said, 
"  That  must  be  a  king ; "  and  on  one  occasion 
when  with  a  friend  he  had  had  sudden  occasion 
to  enter  a  New  Haven  bar-room,  the  keeper  of  the 
place,  startled  and  astonished  by  the  grandeur  of 
Webster's  appearance,  said  breathlessly,  "  That 
man  ought  to  be  President  at  the  very  least." 

Yet  the  testimony  of  his  intimates  shows  that 
his  disposition  was  playful,  and  we  know  that  he 
took  great  delight  in  the  smallest  details  of  house 
and  home  keeping.  He  had  an  immense  fund  of 
humor.  He  was  fond  of  the  pleasures  of  the  table 
and  chose  his  viands  and  his  wines  with  anxious 
and  appreciative  care.  While  he  was  Secretary 
of  State,  and  an  important  treaty — that  which 
settled  the  Northeastern  boundary  question- 
was  coming  to  a  vote  in  the  Senate,  he  paused 
in  the  midst  of  the  burdens  of  State  and  wrote  a 
letter  to  his  farmer  in  New  England,  giving  ex- 
4 


HO  $TA  TESMEN 

plicit  directions  about  the  care  of  certain  salt 
hay,  the  building  of  a  piggery,  and  other  similar 
matters. 

There  are  extant  many  letters  giving  charm 
ing  glimpses  of  the  man  in  undress,  as  we  may 
say.  One  of  these  is  addressed  to  John  Taylor, 
who  had  charge  of  his  farm  in  Franklin,  N.  H. 
It  was  written  just  after  Webster's  famous  /th 
of  March  speech,  delivered  in  1852,  when  the 
great  Senator  was  overwhelmed  with  the  bitter 
ness  of  the  political  contest  then  raging,  not  only 
about  him  in  Washington,  but  all  over  the  coun 
try.  Thus  he  begins  :  "  John  Taylor.  Go  ahead. 
The  heart  of  the  winter  is  broken  and  before  the 
first  day  of  April  all  your  land  may  be  plowed. 
Buy  the  oxen  of  Captain  Marston  if  you  think 
the  price  fair.  Pay  for  the  hay.  I  send  you  a 
check  for  $160  for  these  two  objects.  Put  the 
great  oxen  in  a  condition  to  be  turned  out  to  be 
fattened.  You  have  a  good  horse  team  and  I 
think  in  addition  to  this  four  oxen  and  a  pair  of 
four-year-old  steers  will  do  your  work." 

After  giving  directions  of  this  kind  with  great 
minuteness  and  admonishing  Taylor  that  he 
wants  "  no  pennyroyal  crops,"  and  that  his 
mother's  garden  must  be  kept  in  the  best  order 
at  any  cost,  he  turns  to  politics,  as  if  it  were  im 
possible  to  keep  his  thoughts  out  of  the  com 
motion  going  on  about  him,  and  says : 

"  There  are  some  animals  that  live  best  in  the 
fire,  and  there  are  some  men  who  delight  in  heat, 
smoke,  combustion  and  even  general  conflagra 
tion.  They  do  not  value  the  things  which  make 


DANIEL    WER8TER  51 

peace  ;  they  enjoy  only  controversy,  contention, 
and  strife.  Have  no  communion  with  such  per 
sons  either  as  neighbors  or  politicians.  You  have 
no  more  right  to  say  that  slavery  ought  not  to 
exist  in  Virginia  than  a  Virginian  has  to  say  that 
slavery  ought  to  exist  in  New  Hampshire.  This 
is  a  question  left  to  every  State  to  decide  for 
itself,  and  if  we  mean  to  keep  the  States  together 
we  must  leave  to  every  State  this  power  of  de 
ciding  for  itself.  .  .  .  John  Taylor,  you  are  a 
free  man ;  you  possess  good  principles,  you  have 
a  large  family  to  rear  and  provide  for  by  your 
labor.  Be  thankful  for  the  government  which 
does  not  oppress  you,  which  does  not  bear  you 
down  by  excessive  taxation,  but  which  holds  out 
to  you  and  to  yours  the  hope  of  all  the  bless 
ings  which  liberty,  industry,  and  security  may 
give.  John  Taylor,  thank  God  morning  and 
evening  that  you  are  born  in  such  a  country. 
John  Taylor,  never  write  me  another  word  upon 
politics." 

Webster,  through  all  his  life,  was  easily  in 
fluenced  by  others,  especially  when  those  others 
had  won  his  confidence  and  affection.  His  con 
duct  in  the  matter  of  the  lucrative  court-clerk 
ship  offered  him  in  1804,  when  he  most  needed 
money,  was  a  good  example  of  this  trait.  His 
brother  Ezekiel  was  then  manfully  fighting  his 
way  to  college  ;  Daniel  was  occasionally  earning  a 
little  money  in  the  law  office  of  Mr.  Christopher 
Gore,  of  Boston,  when  the  judges  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas,  in  which  his  father  practised 
in  New  Hampshire,  offered  Daniel  the  place  of 


52  STATESMEN 

clerk  at  a  salary  of  §1,500  a  year.  To  the 
young  law  student  this  was  a  princely  income  ; 
it  would  be  equal  to  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars 
in  these  days.  That  income  would  enable  him 
to  smooth  Ezekiel's  road  to  the  hill  of  learning, 
lift  the  home  mortgage  and  lighten  the  labors  of 
his  father's  last  years.  He  joyfully  prepared 
to  return  to  New  Hampshire  and  enter  upon 
his  profitable  and  welcome  duties.  To  his  in 
tense  astonishment  and  disappointment,  Mr. 
Gore  coldly  expressed  his  disapproval  of  the 
change.  He  pointed  out  the  danger  that  he 
might  be  removed  at  any  time  by  the  favor  of 
the  judges,  that  the  salary  might  be  reduced,  and 
that  it  led  to  nothing,  and  would  block  any 
great  career  that  might  open  before  him.  Dazed 
and  dumbfounded  by  this  unexpected  presenta 
tion  of  the  case,  Webster  reluctantly  admitted 
its  justness,  and,  much  to  the  amazement  of  his 
father,  declined  the  post.  It  was  well.  Never 
theless,  even  the  narrowing  labors  of  that  small 
office  could  not  have  long  crippled  or  hedged  in 
the  genuis  of  Daniel  Webster. 

His  first  great  legal  argument  was  that  in  the 
celebrated  Dartmouth  College  case  which  was 
argued  in  1818  before  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court.  As  a  lawyer,  he  had  a  certain  divine  in 
stinct  to  seize  upon  the  points  of  any  case  which 
was  committed  to  him.  On  one  occasion  an  im 
portant  lawsuit  was  put  in  his  hands  by  a  firm 
of  lawyers  to  argue  before  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  The  briefs  in  the  case  were 
sent  to  him  in  Washington  by  the  hand  of  a 


DANIKL    WEBSTER 


53 


junior  member  of  the  law  firm,  and  when  Web 
ster  looked  the  papers  over  he  said :  "And  is  this 
all?"  The  younger  man  said  timidly:  "There 
is  another  point  which  I  have  presented  to  the 
firm,  but  which  they  thought  not  material,"  and 
then  he  stated  the  case.  Webster's  eyes  glowed 
and  he  said  :  "  My  dear  sir,  that  is  the  point ;  "  and 
on  this  he  won  the  case.  The  Dartmouth  Col 
lege  case  was  one  in  which  the  Legislature  of  the 


Webster's  Home  at   Marshfield,    Mass. 


State  of  New  Hampshire  had  interfered  with 
the  interior  government  of  the  college  and  had 
attempted  to  change  its  course  of  direction. 
Webster's  contention  was  that  "  the  principle  in 
our  constitutional  jurisprudence  which  regards 
a  charter  of  a  private  corporation  as  a  contract 
and  places  it  under  the  protection  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  debarred  the  Legisla 
ture  from  interfering."  The  decision  in  the  case, 
which  was  made  February,  1819,  affirmed  the 
ground  taken  by  Webster  and  established  a  prec 
edent  in  law  which  was  of  the  highest  importance. 


54  STATESMEN 

It  cannot  be  said  that  as  a  jury  lawyer  Web 
ster  always  relied  upon  the  law  in  the  case.  In 
a  celebrated  murder  trial  in  which  he  appeared 
for  the  prosecution  in  Salem,  Mass.,  in  1830, 
he  was  said  to  have  fairly  terrified  the  jury  in 
to  conviction.  Captain  White,  a  retired  and 
Avealthy  sea-captain  of  Salem,  had  been  mur 
dered  in  his  bed.  J.  F.  Knapp  and  others  as  ac 
cessories  were  accused  of  the  crime.  It  was  in 
this  trial  that  he  made  a  wonderful  argument  in 
which  he  described  the  circumstances  of  a  mur 
der,  the  inmost  feelings  of  the  slayer  and  his 
stealthy  escape.  In  his  address  to  the  jury  oc 
curs  the  celebrated  passage,  when,  speaking  of 
the  crime  of  murder,  he  said  :  "  It  betrays  his  dis 
cretion,  it  breaks  down  his  courage,  it  conquers 
his  prudence.  When  suspicions  from  without 
begin  to  embarrass  him  and  the  net  of  circum 
stance  to  entangle  him  the  fatal  secret  struggles 
with  still  greater  violence  to  burst  forth.  It 
must  be  confessed,  it  will  be  confessed ;  there 
is  no  refuge  from  confession  but  suicide,  and 
suicide  is  confession." 

So,  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case,  although 
that  was  not,  as  one  might  well  suppose,  a  cause 
with  which  to  move  an  audience  profoundly,  it 
is  true  of  Webster  that  those  who  heard  his  clos 
ing  sentences  listened  with  faces  wet  with  tears. 
Professor  Chauncey  Goodrich,  of  Yale  College, 
who  heard  this  remarkable  speech  and  wrote  an 
account  of  it,  says  that  Webster  closed  with  these 
words :  "  Sir,  you  may  destroy  this  little  insti 
tution;  it  is  weak;  it  is  in  your  hands.  I  know 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  55 

it  is  one  of  the  lesser  lights  in  the  literary  hori 
zon  of  our  country.  You  may  put  it  out.  But 
if  you  do  so,  you  must  carry  through  your 
work.  You  must  extinguish,  one  after  another, 
all  those  greater  lights  of  science  which  for 
more  than  a  century  have  thrown  their  radiance 
over  our  land.  It  is,  sir,  as  I  have  said,  a  small 
college.  And  yet  there  are  those  who  love 
it."  "  Here,"  says  Professor  Goodrich,  "  the  feel 
ings  he  had  thus  far  succeeded  in  keeping 
down  broke  forth.  His  lips  quivered  ;  his  firm 
cheeks  trembled  with  emotion  ;  his  eyes  were 
filled  with  tears ;  his  voice  choked,  and  he 
seemed  struggling  to  the  utmost  to  gain  that 
mastery  over  himself  which  might  save  him 
from  an  unmanly  burst  of  feeling.  . 
The  whole  seemed  mingled  throughout  with  the 
recollection  of  father,  mother,  brother,  and  all 
the  privations  and  trials  through  which  he  had 
made  his  way  into  life.  Everyone  saw  that  it 
was  wholly  unpremeditated,  a  pressure  on  his 
heart,  which  sought  relief  in  words  and  tears." 
It  was  then  that  the  great  loving  heart  of  Web 
ster  spoke  in  most  moving  eloquence. 

It  was  as  an  occasional  orator  that  Webster 
achieved  his  greatest  fame,  possibly  with  the 
single  exception  of  his  celebrated  reply  to 
Hayne.  The  oration  at  Plymouth,  Mass.,  de 
livered  on  the  two  hundreth  anniversary  of  its 
settlement,  December  22,  1820,  was  perhaps  the 
first  of  his  greatest  oratorical  discourses.  The 
first  Bunker  Hill  oration,  delivered  in  June, 
1825,  was  a  work  of  the  greatest  splendor.  Mag- 


50  STATESMEN 

nificent  in  conception,  luminous  with  the  grand 
est  imagery,  flowing  like  the  full  volume  of  a 
river,  it  at  once  commanded  the  attention  of  the 
entire  nation.  It  was  spoken,  it  would  appear, 
not  so  much  to  the  few  thousands  that  clustered 
around  the  foundations  of  Bunker  Hill  monu 
ment  as  to  the  republic,  to  posterity.  This 
was  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  of  the  great 
orations  of  Webster  that  took  their  place  in  the 
literature  of  the  country  and  were  embodied  in 
the  text-books  of  the  schools  for  the  inspira 
tion  of  the  youth  of  the  republic.  The  passage 
beginning  "  Venerable  men,  you  have  come 
down  to  us  from  a  former  generation,"  it  is  said, 
so  thrilled  the  audience  that  one  could  see  the 
play  of  light  and  shade  as  it  swept  over  the  sea 
of  upturned  faces  before  the  speaker.  The  im 
pression  which  this  speech  made  upon  those  who 
heard  it  was  probably  more  vivid  than  that  left 
by  any  other  of  his  later  occasional  orations. 

Another  splendid  display  of  his  eloquence  was 
the  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson,  delivered  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  1826.  Of  that  speech,  the 
passage  which  purports  to  be  a  speech  delivered 
by  John  Adams  when  the  signing  of  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence  was  under  discussion,  it 
is  explained  that  Webster  deliberately  invented 
the  whole.  Many  school-boys  have  declaimed 
the  immortal  words  beginning  "  Sink  or  swim, 
live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,"  under  the  im 
pression  that  these  were  the  real  words  of 
John  Adams ;  but  Webster  never  pretended 
that  they  were.  In  a  letter  to  an  inquiring 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  57 

friend,  written  in  1846,  Webster  said:  "The 
Congress  of  the  Revolution  sat  with  closed 
doors;  its  proceedings  were  made  known  to  the 
public  from  time  to  time  by  printing  its  journal, 
but  the  debates  were  not  published.  So  far  as  I 
know,  there  is  not  existing  in  print  or  manu 
script  the  speech  or  any  part  or  fragment  of  the 
speech  delivered  by  Mr.  Adams  on  the  question 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence."  Webster 
goes  on  to  say :  "  The  speech  was  written  by  me 
in  my  house  in  Boston  the  day  before  the  de 
livery  of  the  discourse  in  Faneuil  Hall.  A  poor 
substitute  I  am  sure  it  would  appear  to  be  if  we 
could  now  see  the  speech  actually  made  by  Mr. 
Adams  on  that  transcendentally  important  oc 
casion." 

It  has  been  said  by  some  of  the  indiscreet  and 
intemperate  admirers  of  Webster's  genius  that 
many  if  not  all  of  his  greatest  orations  were  com 
posed  upon  the  spur  of  the  moment  and  that  his 
greatest  efforts  were  purely  extemporaneous  and 
suggested  by  the  circumstances  immediately 
about  him.  I  have  somewhere  seen  an  anecdote 
to  this  effect :  His  oration  on  Alexander  Hamil 
ton  was  delivered  at  a  public  dinner  in  New 
York,  and  when  he  approached  that  passage  in 
which  he  used  the  memorable  words  applied  to 
Hamilton,  "  He  smote  the  rock  of  the  national 
resources  and  abundant  streams  of  revenue 
gushed  forth,"  etc.,  in  making  a  gesture,  the 
orator  broke  a  drinking-glass  and  cut  his  finger, 
and  as  he  slowly  wrapped  a  napkin  about  the 
bleeding  wound,  the  figure  of  the  gushing  stream 


58 


STATESMEN 


was  suggested  by  the  incident.  This  is  clearly 
a  misconception,  as  Webster  had  in  his  mind  the 
figure  of  Moses  smiting  the  rock  in  the  wilder 
ness.  And  we  have  the  as 
surance  of  those  who  knew 
him  best,  Mr.  George  T. 
Curtis  and  Mr.  Peter  Har 
vey,  that  all  his  great  fo 
rensic  and  oratorical  efforts 
were  the  result  of  care 
ful  preparation.  Webster 
himself  said  of  his  reply  to 
Hayne,  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact  that  speech  had  been 
lying  in  his  mind  and  in  the 
pigeon-holes  of  his  desk  for 
more  than  a  year.  It  was 
prepared  for  another  oc 
casion,  but  was  not  deliv 
ered  ;  and  Webster  declared  that  if  Mr.  Hayne 
had  intended  to  make  a  speech  to  fit  that  which 
Webster  had  already,  he  could  not  have  come 
nearer  to  it  than  he  did.  Once  when  asked  if 
certain  of  his  speeches  were  delivered  at  brief 
notice,  he  opened  his  great  eyes  with  an  expres 
sion  of  astonishment  and  said :  "  Young  man, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  extemporaneous  acqui 
sition."  Webster  spoke  extemporaneously  con 
stantly  while  he  was  in  the  Senate,  and  he  in 
tended  to  convey  by  this  remark  that  knowledge 
could  not  be  acquired  without  study,  and  that 
study  was  necessary  to  acquire  the  knowledge 
which  informed  all  of  his  speeches. 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  59 

It  has  been  said,  too,  that  in  oratory  Webster 
was  a  sculptor  rather  than  a  painter.  This 
seems  a  too  subtile  definition.  Certainly  many 
of  his  orations  glow  with  light  and  color,  and 
his  powers  of  description  were  often  simply  pic 
torial.  In  his  reply  to  Hayne  he  pictures  the 
patriots  of  Massachusetts  and  South  Carolina 
marching  shoulder  to  shoulder  as  they  went 
through  the  Revolution,  or  standing  hand  in 
hand  around  the  administration  of  Washington, 
and  in  the  wonderful  peroration  of  that  great  ad 
dress,  as  he  raised  his  eyes  to  the  glass  skylight 
of  the  Senate  chamber  and  saw  the  colors  of  the 
Republic  waving  from  the  flagstaff,  he  ex 
claimed  :  "  Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering 
glance  rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the 
republic,  now  known  and  honored  throughout 
the  earth,  still  full-high  advanced,  its  arms  and 
trophies  streaming  in  their  original  lustre,  not 
a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  ob 
scured."  This  was  full  of  color. 

Webster  loved  color  and  bigness  and  vast- 
ness.  Among  all  his  creatures  on  his  farm  none 
were  so  dear  to  him  as  his  great  oxen,  and  in  his 
last  days  he  had  these  slow-moving  animals 
driven  up  to  his  window  where  he  could  look 
at  them,  hear  their  breathings  and  gaze  into 
their  great  eyes  as  he  reclined  within.  The 
illimitable  sea  with  its  mysterious  vagueness, 
Niagara  with  its  terrific  downpour  and  its  re 
sounding  roar,  and  the  great  peaks  of  the  White 
Mountains,  all  moved  him  profoundly.  The  ca 
thedrals  of  Europe  and  the  enormous  bulks  of 


60  STATESMEN 

masonry  that  he  saw  in  England  seemed  to  have 
impressed  him  more  than  anything  else  he  be 
held.  These  appealed  to  his  sense  of  grandeur; 
their  mere  greatness  may  be  said  to  be  akin  to 
the  somewhat  grandiose  quality  of  his  own  dis 
position.  He  was  always  monumental ;  even  his 
familiar  talk  was  pervaded  with  a  certain  unex 
pectedness  of  illustration  that  was  most  original. 

On  one  occasion  when  the  Senate  had  had  an 
all-night  session  and  the  Senators  were  doz 
ing  in  their  chairs,  one  who  sat  near  Webster, 
aroused  by  the  noise  of  the  janitor  opening  the 
shutters  in  the  upper  part  of  the  great  room, 
said :  "  What  is  that — are  they  letting  in  the 
day-light?"  "They  are  letting  out  the  dark 
ness,"  was  Webster's  reply  in  his  deepest,  grum- 
mest,  bass  voice,  as  he  nodded  in  his  chair. 

As  to  his  public  life  it  is  only  necessary  to  re 
call  these  dates :  He  was  first  chosen  a  repre 
sentative  to  the  lower  house  of  Congress  from 
the  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  district,  and  took  his 
seat  in  May,  1813,  while  the  young  republic  was 
still  engaged  in  the  war  with  Great  Britain. 
Two  years  later  he  was  re-elected,  and  at  the 
end  of  this  his  second  term  he  retired  from  public 
office  and  moved  to  Boston,  where  he  sought  and 
obtained  an  enlargement  of  his  already  lucrative 
law  practice.  It  was  said  that  at  this  time  he 
had  the  amplest  income  of  any  lawyer  in  the 
United  States — $20,000 — which  was  a  great  sum 
for  those  days,  being  named  as  the  average  of 
his  earnings.  In  1822  he  was  again  elected  to 
Congress  as  a  representative  from  the  Boston 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  61 

district.  He  continued  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  until  1827,  when  he  was  chosen  United 
States  Senator  from  Massachusetts  for  the  term 
of  six  years.  He  was  re-elected  in  1833  and  in 
1839,  but  retired  from  the  Senate  in  1841  to  ac 
cept  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State  under  Presi 
dent  Harrison.  When  John  Tyler  succeeded  to 
the  Presidency,  after  the  death  of  General  Har 
rison,  Mr.  Webster  was  the  only  member  of  the 
Harrison  Cabinet  to  remain  in  office,  and  in 
1842  he  concluded  the  famous  Ashburton  treaty, 
which  denned  the  Northeastern  boundary  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  Canada.  He  re 
tired  from  the  State  Department  shortly  after 
and  remained  in  private  life  until  1845,  when 
again  he  was  returned  to  the  Senate  by  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  and  remained  a  member  of 
that  body  during  the  Mexican  war  and  the  ad 
ministration  of  President  Taylor.  When  Taylor 
was  succeeded  by  Fillmore,  on  the  death  of  the 
former,  in  1850,  Mr.  Webster  again  entered  the 
Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  State  and  held  that 
office  up  to  the  day  of  his  death. 

It  is  probable  that  Webster's  ambition  to  reach 
the  Presidency  was  kindled  during  the  exciting 
period  that  followed  his  great  speech  in  reply  to 
Hayne,  when  he  was  offered  much  applause. 
This  was  in  1830.  Ten  years  later  he  was  a  for 
midable  competitor  for  the  Whig  nomination 
which  was  carried  off  by  General  Harrison. 
Again,  in  1844,  he  seemed  to  come  near  realizing 
his  hopes,  but  was  defeated  by  Henry  Clay. 
Once  more,  in  1848,  he  contested  the  nomination 


62  STATESMEN 

at  Baltimore  and  was  confessedly  and  bitterly 
disappointed  by  the  nomination  of  General  Scott. 
In  all  these  cases  Weoster's  chagrin  and  dis 
appointment  were  doubtless  very  great,  but  it 
was  not  until  repeated  failures  had  somewhat 
soured  his  naturally  sweet  and  genial  disposition 
that  he  made  open  demonstration  of  his  disgust. 
He  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  one  of  these 
nominations  was  not  fit  to  be  made,  and  that 
another  successful  candidate  was  merely  the  rep 
resentative  of  "  availability."  As  Secretary  of 
State  his  name  will  always  be  identified  with 
several  events  of  great  importance  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  republic.  His  settlement  of  the 
Northeastern  boundary  question,  his  attitude 
toward  General  Jackson  in  the  great  United 
States  bank  war,  his  letter  to  Mr.  Hulseman, 
the  Austrian  ambassador,  concerning  the  Hun 
garian  rebellion,  his  management  of  the  case 
of  the  steamer  Caroline,  and  other  matters 
growing  out  of  our  ticklish  relations  with  Can 
ada,  are  among  the  points  which  stand  out  prom 
inently  in  his  career  as  a  minister  of  state. 

In  debate  Webster  was  not  only  dignified,  but 
urbane  and  kindly  disposed  and  chivalrous  tow 
ard  those  engaged  against  him.  He  never 
descended  to  personalities,  never  took  unfair 
advantage  of  an  adversary,  and  never  resorted 
to  any  tricks  of  sophistry  to  confuse  an  oppo 
nent.  In  one  of  his  letters  from  England,  speak 
ing  of  his  visit  to  the  British  Parliament,  he 
said :  "  I  have  liked  some  of  the  speeches  very 
well ;  they  generally  show  excellent  temper,  po- 


DANIEL   WEBSTER  63 

litencss,  and   mutual   respect  among  the   speak 
ers. 

When,  shortly  after  his  famous  /th  of  March 
speech,  1850,  he  returned  to  Massachusetts,  his 
friends  went  through  the  form  of  asking  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  for  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall. 
To  their  infinite  consternation  and  wrath  that 
favor  was  denied.  The  persons  composing  a 
majority  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  belonged 
to  a  peculiar  political  combination  known  as 
the  Coalitionists.  Webster's  /th  of  March 
speech  was  by  them  believed  to  be  a  bid  for 
Southern  support  in  his  coming  campaign  for 
the  Presidential  nomination.  It  is  true  that 
for  the  first  time  in  his  life  he  appeared  to  have 
forsaken  his  principles  and  was  now  disposed 
to  temporize  with  the  slave  power.  He  had 
lost  favor  in  New  England,  and  throughout 
the  North  his  speech  on  the  compromise  meas 
ures  of  that  year  had  been  received  with 
mingled  incredulity  and  scorn.  But  no  words 
can  express  the  indignation  of  the  stanch  Whigs 
of  Boston,  who  worshipped  Webster  as  an  idol, 
when  it  was  suddenly  made  known  that  the 
doors  of  Faneuil  Hall  were  closed  against  this 
demi-god.  He  spoke,  however,  to  a  great  throng 
that,  gathered  about  the  hotel  where  he  was 
stopping,  and  unconsciously  added  fuel  to  the 
flames  by  making  use  of  one  or  two  unfortunate 
phrases,  which  were  picked  up  and  commented 
upon  by  a  hostile  press.  One  of  these  was  that 
Massachusetts  men  must  "  conquer  their  preju 
dices"  and  support  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  a 


64  STATESMEN 

measure  then  regarded  by  the  people  whom  he 
addressed  with  the  bitterest  execration.  The 
use  of  Faneuil  Hall  was  subsequently  tendered 
to  him  by  the  city  government  in  the  most  ob 
sequious  manner;  but  his  engagements  made  it 
impossible  for  him  to  speak  at  that  time,  and  his 
last  appearance  there  was  one  year  later.  In  the 
meantime  he  had  not  publicly  spoken  in  Boston, 
and  the  belief  that  he  would  take  occasion  now  to 
refer  to  last  year's  denial  of  the  privileges  of  the 
hall  drew  together  a  great  crowd.  It  was  past 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when  Webster,  broken 
with  the  cares  of  state,  harassed  by  infinite  dis 
appointment,  oppressed  by  the  sense  of  declin 
ing  power  and  popularity,  and  hampered  by  a 
lameness  resulting  from  a  recent  accident,  rose 
to  speak;  but  instead  of  addressing  himself  to 
any  discussion  of  the  event  which  was  upper 
most  in  men's  minds — his  previous  exclusion  from 
Faneuil  Hall — he  contented  himself  by  saying : 
"  This  is  Faneuil  Hall — open"  and  passed  on  to 
the  consideration  of  the  state  of  the  country  and 
to  other  matters  very  remote  from  those  which 
oppressed  the  mind  of  the  people.  A  practical 
New  Englander,  standing  in  the  crowd,  said 
"that  word  'open'  weighed  about  five  tons." 
When  he  spoke  in  front  of  his  hotel,  he  said  : 
"  Break  up  the  Whig  party  !  And  what  will  be 
come  of  Me  ?"  Those  who  heard  this  portentous 
question,  for  a  moment  seemed  to  think  that  a  tre 
mendous  disaster  hung  over  the  nation  as  he  thus 
spoke.  The  end  of  the  world  seemed  to  be  nigh. 
Although  Webster  has  long  since  been  dead, 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  65 

controversy  over  his  attitude  on  several  impor 
tant  political  questions  of  his  day  still  is  liable  to 
start  up  at  any  time.  Was  his  course  on  the 
tariff  statesmanlike  ?  Did  he  sacrifice  principle 
for  personal  expediency  when  the  slavery  com 
promises  of  1850  came  up  for  discussion  ?  It  has 
been  argued  in  his  behalf  that  as  New  England 
was  not  in  favor  of  a  protective  tariff  in  1826, 
and  was  in  favor  of  it  a  few  years  later,  Web 
ster  was  entirely  justified  in  changing  sides  as 
his  constituents  changed.  This  was  not  exactly 
harmonious  with  his  contention  that  he  was  an 
independent  Senator — independent  of  his  con 
stituents  to  a  certain  degree.  It  remains  true 
that  he  changed  sides  on  the  tariff  question 
within  the  space  of  two  years. 

On  the  slavery  question  his  attitude  was  still 
less  satisfactory.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  the 
impression  that  Webster's  inclination  to  tempo 
rize  was  due  to  his  unconquerable  desire  for  a 
Presidential  nomination.  No  living  man  had  de 
nounced  the  institution  of  American  slavery  in 
words  more  bitter  and  burning  than  his.  He 
had  studiously  refrained  from  any  appearance  of 
meddling  with  slavery  in  the  States  in  which  it 
already  existed.  But  he  had  urged  that  its  ex 
tension  must  not  be  thought  of.  Yet,  when  the 
compromise  measures  of  1850  were  up,  he  was 
willing  to  support  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  and  to 
leave  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  new  Terri 
tories  to  the  laws  of  nature.  This  was  the  funda 
mental  of  the  7th  of  March  speech — a  speech 
which  revolted  New  England  against  him. 
5 


f>6  STATESMEN 

There  is  one  phase  of  Webster's  character 
which  cannot  be  evaded  in  any  biographical 
sketch  or  discussion  of  his  career.  His  income, 
as  I  have  said,  was  at  times  very  great ;  it  might 
have  been  greater  ;  but  in  any  event,  whatever 
his  earnings  may  have  been,  it  is  clear  that  he 
was  incapable  of  husbanding  his  resources  and 
of  keeping  out  of  debt.  After  he  went  to  Bos 
ton  he  was  always  in  debt.  His  friends,  who 
were  many  and  devoted,  were  constantly  called 
upon  to  supply  the  deficiences  of  his  bank  ac 
count.  Even  in  his  youth  he  was  indifferent  to 
debt,  and  in  his  later  years  this  indifference  in 
creased  beyond  all  reason.  He  not  only  never 
saved,  but  he  lived  beyond  his  means.  He  loved 
handsome  things,  a  fine  library,  great  herds  of 
cattle,  a  noble  estate,  and  an  ample  domain.  He 
was  accused  by  his  enemies  of  selling  his  influence 
for  gain.  Doubtless  these  accusations  \vere  un 
founded,  but  his  reputation  for  thriftlessness  and 
debt-incurring  probably  gave  ground  for  sus 
picion  with  many  who  would  have  liked  to  think 
well  of  him.  Even  in  his  last  days,  when  he  was 
ill  and  should  have  been  taking  his  ease,  he  ac 
cepted  a  large  fee  in  the  celebrated  Goodyear 
india-rubber  litigation  because  he  was  in  debt. 
"  This  fee,"  he  said,  "  I  must  have,  for  it  will 
pay  fifteen  thousand  dollars  of  my  debts,  and 
that  is  what  I  am  striving  to  do  ;  it  is  what,  if 
my  life  is  spared,  I  mean  to  do.  If  I  can  pay  my 
debts  I  shall  die  in  peace,  a  happy  man."  But 
he  died  insolvent.  The  trusts  which  he  made  in 
his  will  of  property  and  money,  which  for  him 


DANIEL    WEBSTER  07 

had  no  real  existence,  were  undertaken  by  his 
friends  who,  when  he  lay  in  his  tomb  at  Marsh- 
field,  discharged  obligations  and  prosperously 
administered  his  estate.  A  day  or  two  before 
he  died  he  said  :  "  I  should  like  to  provide  some 
thing  for  my  family  and  not  leave  them  to  the 
cold  charity  of  the  world,  but  Providence  guides 
and  overrules ;  1  cannot  help  it  and  therefore  I 
submit  to  it."  There  is  something  profoundly 
pathetic  in  these  words  of  the  great  man.  It  was 
lamentable  that  he  should  have  been  so  left  that 
his  last  days  should  have  been  embittered  by 
thoughts  of  poverty.  He  was  incapable  of  sav 
ing,  large  though  his  means  were  ;  but  it  should 
be  added  that  his  bounty  was  as  broad  and  gen 
erous  as  his  personal  desires.  He  was  a  spend 
thrift,  and  he  gave  as  ungrudgingly  to  others  as 
to  the  gratification  of  his  own  appetites  and 
passions. 

It  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  mag 
nificent  animal.  On  this  phase  of  his  character 
we  need  not  look.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  he 
was  a  transcendent  genius,  a  great  power  in  the 
land,  a  defender  of  the  nationality  of  the  States,  an 
unerring  expounder  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
and  unalterably  devoted  to  the  perpetuity  and 
integrity  of  the  Union.  In  his  last  hours  we  see 
him  lying  in  the  darkness  and  seclusion  of  his 
house  by  the  sea  at  Marshfield,  his  large,  sad 
eyes  turning  to  look  through  the  silent  watches 
of  the  night  upon  the  light  that  showed  the  flag 
of  his  country  waving  from  the  masthead  of  a 
little  shallop  moored  by  the  shore. 


68  STATESMEN 

True  to  his  dignified  habits  of  thought  and  or 
atorical  expression,  even  in  those  last  hours  he 
gathered  his  family  and  friends  about  him  and 
discoursed  of  his  relations  to  his  God,  of  his  love 
and  affection  to  his  family,  and  of  the  immortal 
ity  of  the  soul.  After  a  moment  of  silence,  he 
roused  himself  and  looking  eagerly  around  asked  : 
"  Have  I — wife,  son,  doctor,  friends,  are  you  all 
here  ? — have  I  on  this  occasion  said  anything  un 
worthy  of  Daniel  Webster?  "  Dramatic  and  dig 
nified  to  the  last,  he  said  but  little  more.  Past 
midnight,  when  it  was  supposed  he  would  never 
speak  again,  he  roused  himself  with  the  memor 
able  words,  "  I  still  live."  From  this  he  sank  by 
slow  degrees,  and  when  the  bright  autumnal 
Sunday  morning  of  October  24,  1852,  dawned 
goldenly  upon  the  shore,  the  bells  of  Marsh- 
field  told  to  listening  ears  that  a  great  man  was 
dead. 


John   C.  Calhoun. 


III. 

JOHN   C.  CALHOUN. 

THERE  were  three  bright  particular  stars 
shining  in  the  political  sky  of  the  American 
republic  during  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Each  burned  with  a  lustre  of  his  own. 
Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster  formed  this  con 
stellation.  The  genius  of  John  C.  Calhoun 
shone  with  the  cold,  clear  frosty  starlight  of 
a  Northern  atmosphere.  Although  Calhoun  was 
a  Southron  born  and  bred,  there  was  nothing 
tropical  in  his  temperament  or  his  character. 
His  logic  was  pitiless  and  cold,  his  reasoning  im 
placable,  his  intellect  calm. 

There  is  something  melancholy,  too,  about  his 
career.  He  left  very  little  material  for  a  per 
sonal  biography,  and  not  much  is  known  con 
cerning  his  individuality  and  private  life.  The 
fire  of  his  genius  burned  itself  out  in  a  hope 
less  defence  of  the  darling  institution  of  slavery, 
and  he  died  just  as  the  fabric  which  he  had  so 
painfully  reared  was  beginning  to  topple  to  its 
fall. 

It  is  needless  at  this  late  day  to  make  any  ar 
gument  to  prove  the  intellectual  greatness  of  Cal 
houn.  His  place  in  the  great  triumvirate  has 
been  fixed  by  the  muse  of  history  and  by  the 


70  STA  TESMEN 

concurrent  opinion  of  more  than  one  generation. 
No  breath  of  slander  ever  stained  his  name,  and 
though  he  had  ambitious  dreams  of  his  arriving 
at  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  American 
people,  his  course  was  singularly  free  of  even 
the  semblance  of  self-seeking  ;  and  it  does  not 


Calhoun  in  Early  Life. 

appear  that  he  was  ever  swerved  from  the  line 
of  obvious  duty  by  any  anxiety  for  the  Presi 
dential  office  and  its  opportunities,  honors,  and 
allurements.  The  fatal  defect  in  his  moral  and 
mental  equipment  was  the  hallucination  that 
governed  it.  He  believed  in  the  inmost  of  his 
being  that  slavery  was  right  and  good,  only 


JOHN  G.  CALHOUN  71 

good,  and  that  slavery  as  it  then  existed  in  the 
domestic  institutions  of  the  South  could  live 
there  and  in  the  territories  to  be  acquired,  com 
patible  with  the  Federal  Union  and  as  undis 
turbed  (if  men  did  well),  as  any  of  the  humblest 
and  least  important  domestic  concerns  of  either 
section  of  the  Union.  At  that  time  Seward 
had  not  published  his  startling  statement  that 
there  was  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  the 
two  systems  of  labor.  Lincoln  had  not  pro 
claimed  the  doctrine  that  the  Union  could  not 
exist  half  slave  and  half  free.  Calhoun  spent 
seven  years  of  his  early  manhood  in  the  North 
—four  years  at  Yale  College  and  three  at  the 
law  school  of  Litchfield,  Ct.  Yet  in  that  time 
he  failed  to  gain  any  clear  idea  of  the  temper 
of  the  Northern  people  on  the  slavery  ques 
tion  or  to  discern  that  they  had  any  moral  ideas 
whatever  on  the  problem  that  was  to  be  the 
one  great  burden  of  his  mature  life  and  his  old 
age. 

He  was  a  young  lawyer  just  beginning  to 
practice  at  the  bar  at  Abbeville,  S.  C.,  when 
the  first  mutterings  of  the  war  with  England 
(1812)  began  to  be  heard.  He  was  an  ardent, 
youthful  patriot  when  the  bloody  affair  of  the 
Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon,  off  the  coast  of 
New  England,  occurred,  in  1807,  and  he  was 
one  of  the  committee  of  citizens  of  South  Car 
olina  to  draw  up  an  indignant  protest  against 
that  outrage  upon  the  seas.  He  was  twenty-nine 
years  old  when,  in  i8ii,he  first  took  his  seat 
in  the  lower  house  of  Congress,  to  which  he 


72  STATESMEN 

had  been  elected  and  which  met  in  special  ses 
sion  in  the  crisis  of  the  last  great  struggle  be 
tween  the  republic  and  Great  Britain.  Of 
his  private  life  we  know  very  little.  He  seems 
to  have  destroyed  much  of  that  variety  of  docu 
ment  which  is  known  after  a  man's  death  as  his 
"  literary  remains."  His  correspondence,  memo 
randa,  and  other  private  papers  were  bequeathed 
to  a  friend  living  in  Virginia,  under  certain  re 
strictions,  and  it  is  said  that  during  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  much  of  this  accumulation 
was  lost  or  destroyed.  He  was  a  planter  and 
a  slave-owner,  and  his  estate  at  Fort  Hill,  S.  C., 
was  well  managed  and  prosperous.  His  slaves 
were  well  treated  and  they  came  to  him  as 
an  umpire,  judge,  and  friend.  A  rigid  justice 
characterized  his  management  and  regulated 
all  his  doings  with  the  highest  and  the  low 
est.  One  biographer  says  that  "  his  counte 
nance  at  rest  was  strikingly  marked  by  decision 
and  firmness ;  in  conversation  or  when  speak 
ing,  it  became  highly  animated  and  expressive. 
His  large,  dark,  brilliant,  penetrating  eyes 
strongly  impressed  all  who  encountered  their 
glances.  When  addressing  the  Senate  he  stood 
firm,  erect,  accompanying  his  delivery  with  an 
angular  gesticulation.  His  manner  of  speaking 
was  energetic,  ardent,  and  rapid,  and  marked  by 
a  solemn  earnestness  which  inspired  a  strong  be 
lief  in  his  sincerity  and  deep  conviction.  He 
very  rarely  indulged  in  figures  of  speech,  and 
seldom  left  any  doubt  as  to  his  meaning."  He 
appears  to  have  been  utterly  destitute  of  either 


74  STATESMEN 

wit  or  humor.  Nathan  Sargent  says  of  him  : 
"  Able  as  Mr.  Calhoun  certainly  was,  he  found 
an  antagonist  in  Mr.  Clay  too  adroit  and  ready 
for  him.  He  required  time  to  prepare  his  matter 
and  arrange  his  ideas,  even  to  select  his  words. 
Mr.  Clay  did  not,  at  least  in  a  personal  contro 
versy.  As  he  said,  he  was  self -poised,  ever 
ready,  he  could  fire  off-hand  without  rest.  Mr. 
Calhoun,  on  the  contrary,  must  have  time  to  load 
and  take  deliberate  aim.  In  doing  so  he  was 
sure  to  hit  and  penetrate  the  most  vulnerable 
point  of  his  antagonist,  but  while  he  was  doing 
this  his  antagonist  would  have  hit  him  in  a  half 
dozen  places." 

I  have  said  that  he  was  destitute  of  humor, 
but  he  was  sometimes  the  cause  of  wit  in  others. 
Even  Webster,  who  seldom  employed  any  pleas 
antry  in  his  speeches  in  the  Senate,  was  pro 
voked  into  a  humorous  sally  when  Calhoun,  on 
going  into  the  Cabinet  of  John  Tyler,  landed  in 
the  camp  of  his  former  enemies.  Webster  re 
ferred  to  a  mock  play  written  in  England  by 
some  wit  to  ridicule  the  sentimentality  of  a  cer 
tain  German  school  of  literature.  Two  strangers 
meet  at  an  inn ;  suddenly  one  springs  up  and  ex 
claims  :  "  A  sudden  thought  strikes  me ;  let  us 
swear  eternal  friendship/'  The  offer  was  in 
stantly  accepted.  Mr.  Webster  graphically  de 
scribed  the  contest  in  which  he  and  his  friends 
and  Senator  Calhoun  and  his  friends  were  and 
had  been  long  engaged,  and  when  victory  was 
at  last  apparently  in  their  grasp,  the  South  Caro 
lina  Senator  suddenly  cries  out  to  his  enemies, 


JOHN  C.  CALIIOUN  75 

"  Halloo  !  a  sudden  thought  strikes  me  ;  I  aban 
don  my  allies ;  they  have  always  been  my  op 
pressors  ;  let  you  and  I  swear  eternal  friend 
ship." 

It  is  curious  to  note  how  Calhoun  advanced 
his  lines  of  the  defence  of  slavery  from  year  to 
year.  His  attention  had  been  attracted  to  the 
breaking-  out  of  abolitionism  in  the  North.  He 
deprecated  these  distant  attacks  upon  the  cher 
ished  institution  of  slavery,  and  he  appeared  to 
think  that  the  Northern  Senators  were  blamable 
because  they  did  not  by  some  process  which  he 
did  not  himself  explain  suppress  the  words  which 
so  excited  his  anger.  He  appeared  to  think  that 
wordy  fulminations  from  Washington  or  from 
the  South  would  deaden  or  misdirect  the  moral 
sense  of  the  North,  then  very  slowly  awakening 
to  the  enormity  of  the  crime  of  human  slavery. 
Suddenly,  in  January,  1836,  his  attention  was 
aroused  by  the  appearance  in  the  Senate  of  peti 
tions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  The  attacks  of  these  abolition 
petitions  were  not  in  the  least  directed  against 
slavery  in  the  States,  but  solely  against  slavery 
in  the  District ;  but  from  his  point  of  view  all 
petitions  on  the  subject  of  slavery  were  in  them 
selves  a  "  foul  slander  on  nearly  one-half  of  the 
States  of  the  Union."  It  made  no  difference  to 
him  that  their  ultimate  result  was  unpromising. 
His  objection  was  that  unless  an  undoubted  pro 
vision  of  the  Constitution  compelled  the  receiv 
ing  of  such  petitions,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Sen 
ate  to  reject  them  at  the  door.  He  took  the 


76  STATESMEN 

ground  that  Congress  had  no  jurisdiction  what 
ever  over  the  subject  of  slavery  in  whatever 
form  it  might  be  presented,  and  no  more  power 
over  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia  than  in  the 
States.  The  Senate,  however,  decided  to  re 
ceive  the  petitions  and  then  to  reject  them. 

His  next  line  was  drawn  at  the  exclusion 
of  so-called  "  incendiary  documents  "  from  the 
mails.  These  documents  were  tracts,  books,  or 
papers  containing  arguments  designed  to  show 
that  human  slavery  was  wicked  and  that  its 
maintenance  was  not  in  any  way  economical  to 
the  States  in  which  it  existed ;  but  it  pleased 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  others  to  assume  that  these 
documents  were  incendiary,  because,  as  they 
said,  they  were  designed  to  foment  insurrection 
and  risings  among  the  people  held  in  slavery. 
His  contention  was  that  "  the  internal  peace  and 
security  of  the  States  are  under  the  protection 
of  the  States  themselves,  to  the  entire  exclusion 
of  all  authority  and  control  on  the  part  of  Con 
gress.  It  belongs  to  them  and  not  to  Congress 
to  determine  what  is  or  what  is  not  calculated  to 
disturb  their  peace  and  security."  President 
Jackson  had  recommended  that  the  mails  should 
be  closed  to  all  publications  tainted  with  the 
spirit  of  abolitionism,  and  he  invited  Congress  to 
pass  a  law  prohibiting  "  under  severe  penalties 
the  circulation  in  the  Southern  States,  through 
the  mails,  of  incendiary  publications  intended  to 
instigate  slaves  to  insurrection."  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  no  such  publications  had  ever  been  issued, 
and  what  the  President  really  wanted  was  to  ex- 


JOHN  C.   CALHOUN  77 

elude  from  the  mails  all  printed  matter  designed 
to  shake  any  man's  faith  in  the  morality  and 
righteousness  of  slavery.  Calhoun  introduced  a 
bill  providing  that  postmasters  who  knowingly 
transmitted  or  delivered  papers  treating  of  slav 
ery  in  any  way  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  State 
should  be  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment. 
His  theory  was  that  the  State,  and  not  the  Fed 
eral  Congress,  should  determine  what  should  be 
regarded  as  contrary  to  the  laws  bearing  upon 
this  question. 

His  next  step  was  that  slavery  in  the  abstract 
was  not  an  evil,  as  many  (even  slaveholders) 
had  admitted  that  it  was.  He  took  the  high 
ground  that  negro  slavery  was  "  a  positive 
good,"  and  said  :  "  The  relation  now  existing  in 
the  slave-holding  States  between  the  two  races  is, 
instead  of  an  evil,  a  good,  a  positive  good."  And 
his  argument  was  that  the  negroes  were  bene 
fited  by  slavery  because  their  moral  condition 
was  better  than  it  would  have  been  in  the  wilds 
of  Africa,  and  that  it  was  a  blessing  for  native- 
born  Americans  of  the  negro  race  to  be  kept  in 
slavery  because  it  had  been  a  blessing  to  their 
ancestors  for  generations  back.  He  said  :  "  The 
white  or  European  race  is  not  degenerated.  It 
has  kept  up  with  its  brethren  in  other  sections 
of  the  Union  where  slavery  does  not  exist.  It  is 
odious  to  make  comparisons,  but  I  appeal  to  all 
States  whether  the  South  is  not  equal  in  virtue, 
intelligence,  patriotism,  courage,  disinterested 
ness,  and  all  the  higher  qualities  which  adorn 
our  nature." 


78  STATESMEN 

Once  more  he  advanced  his  lines  when  new 
territory  was  acquired  by  the  United  States. 
His  theory  was  that  the  Constitution  permitted 
slavery  everywhere  until  it  was  deliberately 
recognized  or  deliberately  disallowed  by  legal 
statutes.  Singularly  enough,  he  clung  loyally 
and  tenaciously  to  the  idea  that  slavery  and  the 
Union  could  exist  together  amicably,  and  what 
ever  were  his  vagaries  on  the  subject  of  States 
rights  and  nullification,  it  must  be  said  of  him 
that  up  to  his  latest  breath  he  continued  sin 
cerely  devoted  to  the  Federal  Union.  He  was 
not  a  disunionist ;  he  did  not  plot  for  a  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union,  and  it  is  gross  injustice  to 
charge  him,  as  some  have  charged  him,  with 
being  ready  to  consent  to  the  establishment  of  a 
Southern  confederacy  in  order  that  he  might  be 
the  president  of  a  new  republic  after  having 
failed  in  his  ambition  to  be  President  of  the 
Federal  Union.  As  early  as  1839  ne  astonished 
the  Senate  by  asserting  with  great  vehemence 
that  "a  dissolution  of  the  Union  had  ever  been 
and  would  for  all  future  time  remain  an  imagi 
nary  danger."  Referring  to  the  compromise 
tariff  he  said  :  "  It  terminated  honestly  and  fairly, 
and  without  the  sacrifice  of  any  interest,  one  of 
the  most  dangerous  controversies  that  ever  dis 
turbed  the  Union  or  endangered  its  existence, 
not  the  danger  of  dismemberment,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Senator  [Buchanan]  was  anticipated 
abroad.  No,  the  danger  lay  in  a  different  direc 
tion.  Dismemberment  is  not  the  only  mode  by 
which  our  union  may  be  destroyed.  It  is  a  fed- 


JOHN  O.  C ALII  GUN  79 

eral  union,  a  union  of  sovereign  States,  and  can 
be  as  effectually  and  much  more  easily  destroyed 
by  consolidation  as  by  dismemberment.  .  .  . 
The  constant  struggle  is  to  enlarge  and  not  to 
divide,  and  there  neither  is  nor  ever  has  been 
the  least  danger  that  our  union  should  ter 
minate  in  dissolution."  At  another  time,  in  a 
letter  to  the  citizens  of  Athens,  Ga.,  he  said,  re 
ferring  to  the  peculiar  institution  of  the  South  : 
"  The  Constitution  has  placed  in  our  power  am 
ple  means,  short  of  secession  or  disunion,  to  pro 
tect  ourselves." 

More  than  any  other,  Calhoun  was  responsible 
for  the  annexation  of  Texas,  although  he  pas 
sionately  denied  all  responsibility  for  the  war 
with  Mexico  which  followed  and  which  he  sup 
ported  with  languor.  War  was  always  distaste 
ful  to  him,  although  he  sounded  the  clarion-call 
to  arms  when  the  country  was  in  danger  from 
the  aggressions  of  England  and  France.  Being 
called  by  President  Tyler  to  fill  the  place  of 
Secretary  of  State,  from  which  office  Webster 
had  been  conveniently  shuffled  out,  he  put  on 
foot  negotiations  for  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
By  an  ingenious  device  this  was  called  at  that 
time  the  re-annexation  of  Texas,  the  territory 
having  been  part  of  what  was  known  as  the 
Florida  purchase  when  the  contiguous  territory 
became  absorbed  into  the  Federal  Union.  By 
some  miscarriage  of  diplomacy,  as  Southern 
statesmen  always  declared,  that  region  lying  west 
of  Louisiana  and  east  of  the  Rio  Grande  be 
came  the  property  of  Mexico.  When  the  prov- 


SO  STATESMEN 

incc  declared  its  independence  from  Mexico,  it 
was  well  understood  that  this  was  only  a  step 
preliminary  to  demanding-  admission  into  the 
Federal  Union.  While  negotiations  were  pend 
ing,  a  treaty  for  annexation  having  been  rejected 
by  the  Senate,  James  K.  Polk  was  nominated  by 
the  Democrats  as  the  advocate  of  immediate 
annexation,  and  at  the  next  succeeding  session 
of  Congress  the  project  was  again  renewed,  and 
Calhoun,  who  had  returned  to  the  Senate,  be 
came  one  of  its  most  ardent  supporters.  After 
a  series  of  adventures  not  altogether  creditable 
to  American  diplomacy  or  American  good  faith, 
the  country  was  plunged  into  war  with  Mexico. 
Calhoun,  while  publicly  accepting  the  imputation 
of  being  the  author  of  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
insisted  that  the  responsibility  for  the  war  be 
longed  to  the  President,  who  had  violated  the 
Constitution  by  sending  troops  on  his  own  per 
sonal  authority  into  the  disputed  territory. 

Finally,  annexation  being  an  accomplished 
fact,  the  question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories 
again  came  before  Congress  for  settlement. 
Calhoun  not  only  denied  any  power  of  Congress 
to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories,  but  in 
still  stronger  terms  denied  the  power  to  do  it  on 
the  part  of  the  inhabitants  or  legislators  of  those 
Territories.  His  contention  was  that  only  a 
sovereign  State  could  legislate  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  He  suggested  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  extending  into  the  Territories 
acquired  from  Mexico,  would  operate  to  repeal 
the  existing  local  Mexican  laws  abolishing  sla- 


JOHN  C.  CALIIOUN  81 

very.  And  again  he  insisted  that  if  the  South 
wished  to  save  the  Union  or  save  herself,  she 
must  arouse  to  instant  action  and  hold  no  con 
nection  with  any  party  in  the  North  not  pre 
pared  to  enforce  the  guarantees  of  the  Constitu 
tion  in  favor  of  the  South. 

He  was  a  "  strict  constructionist,"  to  use  a 
phrase  very  familiar  in  those  days  as  relating  to 
slavery  and  the  Constitution,  but  he  was  some 
what  inconsistent  when  other  matters  were  in 
volved.  For  instance,  he  was  early  one  of  the 
most  ardent  supporters  of  the  policy  of  internal 
improvements.  He  projected  a  national  road 
from  Washington  to  New  Orleans  via  Abing- 
don,  Va.,  Knoxville,  Tenn. ;  thence  through  Ala 
bama,  passing  near  Cahawba,  and  so  on  to  New 
Orleans.  This,  of  course,  was  not  a  railroad, 
but  a  great  national  highway,  the  iron  horse  not 
then  having  made  his  appearance  on  the  conti 
nent.  Among  other  of  his  schemes  for  the  bind 
ing  of  the  Union  together  by  arteries  of  com 
merce  were  the  opening  of  an  inland  navigation 
from  New  York  to  Savannah  by  a  canal  from 
New  York  to  Philadelphia ;  the  canal  uniting  the 
Delaware  and  Susquehanna  Rivers ;  a  canal  from 
Chesapeake  Bay  to  the  Potomac  at  Washington ; 
the  Dismal  Swamp  Canal,  uniting  Chesapeake 
Bay  with  Albemarle  Sound,  and  so  on  to  Savan 
nah  ;  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Canal,  as  a  channel 
of  commerce  for  the  great  West,  and  a  national 
highway  from  Washington  to  Buffalo.  All  of 
these  public  improvements  were  on  lines  which 
in  these  later  days  would  be  regarded  as  strain- 
6 


82  STATESMEN 

ing  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic  rather  se 
verely.  In  1825,  in  a  speech  to  his  neighbors 
at  Abbeville,  S.  C.,  he  said :  "  No  man  would 
reprobate  more  pointedly  than  myself  any 
concerted  union  between  States  for  interested 
or  sectional  objects.  Such  concert  would  be 
against  the  spirit  of  our  Constitution,  which  was 
intended  to  bind  all  the  States  in  one  common 
bond  of  union  and  friendship."  And  yet  only  a 
few  years  after  this  he  was  pleading  for  a  "  con 
certed  union"  which  should  defend  slavery  and 
put  that  institution  so  far  above  the  flying  ar 
rows  of  its  adversaries  that  it  would  be  forever 
impregnable. 

A  study  of  the  history  of  statesmen  often  re 
veals  strange  contradictions  and  startling  changes 
in  political  opinions.  For  example,  when  prep 
arations  for  the  war  of  1812  engaged  the  atten 
tion  of  the  younger  politicians  of  South  Carolina, 
the  patriotic  New  Englanders  were  attracted  by 
their  boisterous  patriotism,  and  the  idea  was  en 
tertained  in  both  sections  that  it  was  possible  to 
form  a  coalition  between  South  Carolina  and 
New  England  to  put  down  the  "  Virginia  Dy 
nasty,"  as  it  was  called,  whose  narrow  and  anti- 
commercial  policy  had  greatly  annoyed  both 
sections.  And  yet  the  time  came  when  New 
England  and  South  Carolina  were  virtually  arm 
ing  themselves  against  each  other  and  declaring 
a  policy  of  non-intercourse. 

It  is  not  certain  whether  Calhoun  will  be  best 
known  in  history  as  the  ardent  defender  of  slav 
ery  or  as  the  great  nullifier.  The  States  rights 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  83 

doctrine  of  Calhoun  and  his  school  was  not,  as 
its  supporters  maintained,  necessarily  secession 
or  war,  though  it  might  lead  eventually  to  both, 
as  we  have  already  seen.  Calhoun  insisted,  with 
strange  lack  of  logic,  that  the  union  of  the  States 
was  really  more  secure  by  the  establishment  of 
his  theory  of  States  rights  than  it  could  be  in 
any  other  way.  The  tariff  of  1828  was  extremely 
distasteful  to  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  and 
the  Calhoun  school  of  politicians  resolved  that  it 
should  not  be  enforced.  Calhoun's  argument 
was  that  the  State,  having  determined  to  protect 
its  citizens  by  an  act  of  nullification,  would  put 
an  impassable  barrier  in  the  way  of  any  penalty 
or  sentence  imposed  by  the  Federal  courts  in 
consequence  of  an  act  of  obedience  to  the  State 
statute.  Nullification  was  an  act  by  the  State 
nullifying  within  the  borders  of  that  State  any 
law  of  the  Federal  Congress  which  might  be  dis- 

o  o 

tasteful  to  a  majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  State. 
Calhoun  contended  that  nullification  did  not  dis 
turb  the  legal  relation  between  the  State  and  the 
Union,  but  rather  confirmed  it.  He  said  that 
the  States  had  "  entered  "  the  Federal  Union  and 
that  that  entrance  implied  a  free  action  on  their 
part  without  binding  any  of  the  States  to  irre 
movable  consequences  thereafter.  Force  could 
not  be  employed  by  the  Federal  Government 
because  the  question  was  a  moral  one,  and  no 
physical  resistance  could  be  taken. 

The  Legislature  of  South  Carolina,  in  Novem 
ber,  1832,  passed  an  ordinance  declaring  the 
tariff  act  of  1828  null  and  void.  It  was  also  de- 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  85 

clared  that  the  payment  of  duties  should  not 
be  enforced  within  the  State,  and  that  any  at 
tempt  on  the  part  of  the  Federal  Government 
to  enforce  its  laws  would  absolve  the  State  from 
all  connection  with  the  Union  and  it  would  im 
mediately  establish  a  separate  and  independent 
government.  Secession  would  ensue  if  nullifi 
cation  were  not  agreed  to  by  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment.  Great  excitement  in  South  Carolina 
followed  the  passage  of  this  ordinance,  and  Pres 
ident  Jackson  replied  to  it  with  a  proclamation 
and  a  message  to  Congress  threatening  to  apply 
physical  pressure  to  the  rebels  of  the  Palmetto 
State.  It  was  even  said  (although  this  statement 
was  never  verified)  that  Jackson  threatened  to 
hang  Calhoun  "  as  high  as  Haman."  Jackson 
was  a  bold  and  sometimes  reckless  officer,  but 
nobody  knew  better  than  he  that  he  had  no 
power  to  hang  even  a  rebel  leader,  and  Calhoun's 
personal  courage  was  certainly  equal  to  any 
emergency,  and  it  would  be  unjust  to  suppose 
that  he  was  for  a  moment  deterred  from  his 
course  by  any  menace  from  General  Jackson. 

Various  expedients  to  dissolve  the  terrifying 
complication  were  proposed  from  the  different 
States.  While  warlike  operations  were  going 
on  under  the  orders  of  President  Jackson  and 
General  Scott,  Clay  introduced  in  Congress  a 
new  tariff  which  practically  abandoned  the 
policy  of  protection  and  conceded  to  South 
Carolina  the  principle  for  which  she  was  con 
tending.  Peace  was  restored,  and  Calhoun  and 
the  milliners  consented  to  postpone  secession. 


86  STATESMEN 

Clay's  compromise  bill,  according"  to  Thomas  H. 
Benton,  "  made  its  first  appearance  in  the  House 
late  in  the  evening,  when  members  were  gather 
ing  up  their  overcoats  for  a  walk  home  to  their 
dinners,  was  passed  before  their  coats  had  got 
on  their  back,  and  the  dinner  which  was  waiting 
had  but  little  time  to  cool  before  the  astonished 
members,  their  work  done,  were  at  the  table  to 
eat  it."  South  Carolina  was  appeased  and  the 
Union  saved. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  incidents  in  the 
career  of  Calhoun  was  his  final  break  with  Pres 
ident  Jackson.  Calhoun  was  a  Cabinet  minister 
during  the  Florida  campaign,  in  which  Jackson, 
as  commander  of  the  Federal  forces,  had  carried 
things  with  a  high  hand.  Without  instructions, 
and  without  authority  of  law,  he  had  conducted 
executions  and  had  moved  his  troops  in  disre 
gard  of  international  law  or  usage.  His  course 
was  severely  criticised  by  the  strict  construc- 
tionists,  but  it  commanded  enthusiastic  applause 
from  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Years 
afterward,  when  Jackson  was  President  and  Cal 
houn  was  serving  a  second  term  as  Vice-Presi 
dent,  with  an  expectation  of  succeeding  to  the 
Presidency,  the  celebrated  Eaton  scandal  broke 
out.  Mrs.  Eaton  was  the  wife  of  Senator  Eaton, 
of  Tennessee,  and  by  her  light  conduct  had 
brought  scandal  upon  herself  and  her  husband. 
The  wives  of  Cabinet  ministers  and  other  high 
functionaries  refused  to  recognize  Mrs.  Eaton. 
Among  others,  Vice-President  Calhoun  and  Mrs. 
Calhoun  fell  under  the  ban  of  President  Jack- 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  87 

son's  displeasure,  that  functionary  having  en 
deavored  to  dragoon  Washington  society  into 
receiving  Mrs.  Eaton  on  terms  of  favor.  With 
great  rage  and  honest  indignation,  President 
Jackson  regarded  as  his  enemy  every  man  who 
would  not  accept  Mrs.  Eaton. 

Unfortunately  for  the  Vice-President,  General 
Jackson  about  this  time  learned  that  Calhoun, 
when  in  the  Cabinet,  was  one  of  those  who 
strongly  criticised  General  Jackson's  reckless 
ness  in  his  operations  against  the  Seminoles  in 
Florida.  Doubtless  the  General  in  this  matter 
had  acted  in  good  faith,  but  President  Monroe 
and  the  Cabinet,  including  Calhoun,  did  not  agree 
with  the  view  which  Jackson  then  took  of  his 
own  course.  Calhoun  insisted  that  the  capture 
of  Pensacola  was  an  act  of  war  against  Spain 
and  a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  he 
had  not  only  acted  without  but  against  his  own 
instructions.  Now  (April,  1830)  Calhoun's  posi 
tion  on  the  Florida  question  was  revealed  to 
Jackson.  This,  added  to  the  opposition  of  the 
Calhoun  family  in  the  matter  of  Mrs.  Eaton,  set 
Andrew  Jackson  in  a  towering  rage.  The  breach 
with  Jackson  was  irreparable.  It  was  the  death 
blow  of  the  Presidential  aspirations  of  Calhoun, 
who,  in  the  language  of  one  of  the  historians  of 
the  period  (William  Wirt),  "  had  blasted  his  pros 
pects  of  future  advancement  forever."  Jackson 
was  thenceforth  his  bitterest  foe,  and  every  parti 
cle  of  influence  that  he  had  was  thrown  against 
Calhoun  and  in  favor  eventually  of  Martin  Van 
Buren.  Von  Hoist,  in  his  account  of  this  grand 


88  STATESMEN 

breaking-up,  says :  "  Calhoun  himself  remained 
to  the  end  of  his  life  firmly  convinced  that  Van 
Buren  was  the  engineer  who  had  constructed  the 
ingenious  battery  for  the  explosion.  Though 
there  is  no  documentary  proof  of  it,  yet  it  can 
be  hardly  doubted  that  Van  Buren  did  in  fact 
take  part  in  devising  the  scheme,  but  he  was  too 
wary  and  too  cunning  in  such  transactions  ever 
to  do  himself  what  could  be  done  as  well  or  even 
better  by  some  devoted  friend." 

It  may  be  said  of  Calhoun  that  after  this  alien 
ation,  which  resulted  in  one  of  the  bitterest  dis 
appointments  of  his  life,  he  was  in  reality  a 
party  by  himself.  For  even  in  his  ardent  and  in 
cessant  defence  of  slavery  and  pitiless  crusade 
against  all  who  dared  to  wag  their  tongues 
against  that  institution,  he  did  not  always  have 
with  him  the  sympathy  and  support  of  the  slave- 
holding  politicians  of  his  own  section.  He  failed 
to  see  that  resolutions  and  speeches,  which  he 
multiplied  indefinitely,  could  not  smother  the 
volcanic  fire  that  was  slowly  gathering  head 
under  the  crust  of  Northern  society.  He  seemed 
to  think  that  these  "  words,  words,  words  "  ought 
in  some  way  to  silence  the  growing  clamor  of 
the  North  against  the  cherished  institutions  of 
the  South.  He  lamented  the  destruction  of  the 
equipoise  which  had  existed  in  the  Senate  be 
tween  the  slave-holding  States  and  the  non-slave- 
holding  States.  With  constant  iteration  he 
turned  to  this  as  the  source  of  all  his  woes.  To 
this  single  idea,  the  defence  and  elevation  of  sla 
very,  he  remained  true  to  the  last. 


JOHN  G.  CALUOUN  89 

His  health  gradually  failed,  and  though  his  eye 
did  not  lose  its  brilliancy  or  his  intellectual  force 
abate,  it  was  plain  that  his  days  were  numbered, 
and  on  the  4th  of  March,  icS5o,  having  been  ab 
sent  from  the  Senate  many  weeks,  he  appeared 
in  the  chamber  supported  by  his  friends,  who 
escorted  him  to  his  seat.  The  so-called  compro 
mise  measures  of  1850  were  under  discussion,  and 
he  asked  permission  of  the  Senate,  being  too 
feeble  to  deliver  his  address,  that  his  friend, 
Senator  Mason,  of  Virginia,  should  read  it  for 
him.  The  address  was,  in  fact,  only  a  recapitula 
tion  of  what  had  been  urged  again  and  again  in 
the  South  and  by  the  Southern  Senators  on  the 
floor,  charging  an  aggression  by  the  general  gov 
ernment  and  the  North  on  the  rights  of  the 
South,  and  insisting  that  the  true  purpose  of  the 
North  was  to  destroy  slavery  in  the  States  where 
it  had  existed  since  the  original  articles  of  con 
federation  were  agreed  to.  "  The  strongest  cord 
of  a  political  character,"  he  said,  "  consists  of  the 
many  and  strong  ties  that  have  held  together  the 
two  great  parties.  If  this  agitation  goes  on,  the 
same  force,  acting  with  increased  intensity,  will 
finally  snap  every  cord,  when  nothing  will  be  left 
to  hold  the  States  together  except  by  force." 
His  speech  over,  the  great  milliner  and  de 
fender  of  slavery,  who  had  spent  his  latest 
breath  for  the  preservation  and  perpetuation 
of  slavery,  withdrew.  He  died  on  the  3ist  of 
March,  1850.  He  was  eulogized  by  Webster, 
Benton,  and  other  distinguished  statesmen  who 
were  his  contemporaries. 


90  STATESMEN 

From  the  day  of  his  death  until  the  Confed 
erate  flag  fell  at  Appomattox  the  logical  con 
sequences  of  his  life  and  teachings  went  on 
and  on,  increasing  in  force  and  intensity  until 
the  fabric  that  he  had  so  laboriously  reared 
fell  in  ruins.  To  the  last  moment  he  mani 
fested  the  deepest  interest  and  concern  in  the 
troubles  of  his  country.  "  The  South,  the  poor 
South,  God  knows  what  will  become  of  her," 
murmured  his  trembling  lips ;  but  he  died  with 
that  serenity  of  mind  which  only  a  clear  con 
science  can  give  on  the  death-bed.  On  Feb 
ruary  12,  1847,  ne  said  in  the  Senate  :  "  If  I 
know  myself,  if  my  head  were  at  stake  I  would 
do  my  duty,  be  the  consequences  what  they 
might."  It  was  his  solemn  conviction  that 
throughout  his  life  he  had  faithfully  done  his 
duty  both  to  the  Union  and  to  his  section.  Be 
cause  as  he  honestly  believed  slavery  to  be  good, 
"a  positive  good,"  he  had  never  been  able  to  see 
that  it  was  impossible  to  serve  at  the  same  time 
the  Union  and  his  section. 


Thomas   H.  Benton. 


IV. 
THOMAS  H.  BENTON. 

IN  one  of  the  public  squares  of  the  city  of  St. 
Louis  there  stands  a  bronze  statue  of  Thomas  H. 
Benton.  The  right  hand  points  westward,  and 
on  the  pedestal  are  inscribed  these  words  : 

"  There  is  the  East. 
There  is  India." 

It  is  odd  that  so  little  is  said  by  the  biographers 
of  Benton  about  his  early,  incessant,  and  active  ef 
forts  to  promote  the  building  of  a  railway  across 
the  continent.  He  was  one  of  the  first  statesmen 
of  the  country  to  advocate  the  building  of  such 
a  road.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest  to  direct  the 
adventurous  explorations  in  the  far  West,  and  to 
encourage  overland  transit  by  wagon  to  the  Pa 
cific  coast.  He  was  engaged  in  these  labors  long 
before  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California.  While 
the  right  of  American  possession  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  was  as  yet  unsettled,  he  threw 
himself  into  the  contest  for  the  acquisition  of 
that  territory  with  tremendous  zeal ;  and  as  early 
as  1819  he  wrote  on  all  these  topics.  When  he 
entered  Congress,  in  1820,  he  expounded  his  proj 
ects  for  overland  communication,  and  renewed 
his  attempts  to  induce  the  Government  to  engage 
in  the  great  enterprises  of  road-building  and  ex- 


92  STATESMEN 

ploration.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  he 
sought  out  hunters,  trappers,  and  voyageurs,  and 
absorbed  their  information,  pumped  them  dry  of 
all  the  facts  which  they  had  acquired  ;  and  as  a 
more  correct  scientific  knowledge  of  the  unknown 
wilderness  became  accessible,  his  views  took  shape 
in  the  proposals  that  finally  culminated  in  the 
building  of  the  great  Central  Pacific  Railroad. 

Of  course,  when  the  plans  for  building  the 
Pacific  Railroad  were  finally  adopted,  gold  had 
been  discovered  in  California,  and  the  United 
States  had  secured  a  foothold  upon  those  distant 
shores ;  and  Benton,  with  intense  pride  in  his 
country,  and  more  broad  in  his  nationality  than 
many  of  the  statesmen  of  that  period,  did  not 
stop  to  consider  whether  there  should  be  a  North 
ern  or  a  Southern  trans-continental  road,  but  he 
argued  boldly  for  the  proposed  central  route 
which  was  subsequently  adopted.  He  showed 
the  character  of  the  region  through  which  this 
line  should  run,  the  ease  by  which  the  passes 
through  the  Rocky  Mountains  could  be  utilized, 
and  he  prophesied  a  great  and  rapid  increase  of 
States  and  communities  as  one  of  the  results 
which  would  certainly  follow  the  building  of  the 
road.  In  the  course  of  one  of  his  speeches, 
he  made  an  interesting  comparison  of  the  courses 
of  trade  and  commerce  at  different  periods  of 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  argued  that,  as 
we  had  finally  reached  the  Pacific  coast  we  had 
taken  the  position  where  our  trade  with  the  king 
doms  of  the  Orient  would  make  us  independent 
of  Europe. 


THOMAS  H.  BENTON  93 

Years  before,  when  the  Mississippi  River 
seemed  to  be  the  most  remote  western  border  of 
our  Republic,  and  when  nobody  had  penetrated 
the  boundless  wilderness  that  stretches  to  the 
foot  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  when  nobody 
supposed  we  could  ever  people  so  vast  a  terri 
tory  as  that  which  then  lay  unclaimed  far  to  the 
westward,  Benton  had  said  that  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  should  be  our  natural  frontier  line  on  the 
westward,  a  barrier  beyond  which  we  could  not 
pass ;  and  he  had  expressed  his  belief  that  on  the 
Pacific  coast  there  would  grow  up  a  friendly  re 
public.  But  when  the  discovery  of  gold  and  the 
acquisition  of  California  changed  all  this,  he,  too, 
changed  his  view  of  the  situation,  and  held  that 
we  should  have,  wherever  possible,  no  boundaries 
but  the  two  oceans.  In  considering  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  great  marine  lines  across  the 
Pacific  Ocean  debouching  from  California,  we 
should  never  forget  the  prophetic  words  of  Ben- 
ton,  "  There  is  India." 

Benton  was  pre-eminently  a  Western  man.  He 
possessed  all  the  traits  ojjthe  aggre_ssiver  alert,, 
and  self-asserting  pioneers  of  thp  Wg st.  It  was 
in  the  great  community  of  which  he  formed  so 
picturesque  and  towering  a  figure,  that  was  orig 
inated  the  once  familiar  phrase,  "  Manifest  Des 
tiny."  Benton  believed  in  the  future  vastness 
of  his  country,  and  with  his  boastful  and  some 
times  inflated  oratory  he  forever  preachedthe 
doctrine  of  ManifestDestiny.  In  every  dlrec- 
tion  wherever  territory  was  to  be  acquired,  to 
the  southwest,  westward,  and  northwest,  there 


94  STATESMEN 

his  voice  was  ever  directed,  ringing"  and  incit 
ing  to  action  and  to  acquisition  the  cheerful  and 
ready  ranks  of  his  fellow-Westerners. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  earlier 
years  of  Benton's  time,  all  the  territory  lying 
westward  of  the  Ohio,  whether  to  the  south  or 
to  the  north,  was  known  by  the  comprehensive 
title  of  "The  West."  At  that  time  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  East  and  the  West  was 
far  more  distinct  than  that  which  separated  the 
North  from  the  South,  and  as  the  latter  boundary 
became  sharper  and  more  intense,  so  did  the  line 
betwixt  East  and  West  become  more  vague 
and  more  distantly  removed  from  the  Eastern 
States. 

Benton  not  only  favored  the  opening  and  ex 
tension  of  lines  of  communication  with  the  wild 
and  trackless  Northwest,  but  also  with  Mexico 
and  with  the  territories  which  we  subsequently 
acquired  by  the  Mexican  war.  He  advocated 
the  establishment  of  military  posts  on  the  Upf^er 
Missouri,  one  of  which  is  now  known  by  his 
name,  Fort  Benton ;  and  throughout  his  career 
he  incessantly  pleaded  for  the  cultivation  of  ami 
cable  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes,  their  re 
moval  to  reservations  where  they  should  be 
amply  protected,  and  the  development  of  the 
regions  from  which  they  had  been  taken.  In 
land  navigation  and  great  post  roads,  military 
roads,  and  trading  trails  to  the  far  Southwest, 
were  among  his  hobbies,  of  which  it  must  be 
confessed  he  had  many.  The  treaty  with  Spain 
by  which  we  secured  Florida  and  other  acquisi- 


THOMAS  H.  BEN  TON  1)5 

tions  were  matters  that  greatly  cheered  the  soul 
of  Benton,  even  before  he  entered  the  Senate. 
In  one  of  his  speeches  when  the  Florida  pur 
chase  was  under  consideration  he  said :  "  The 
magnificent  valley  of  the  Mississippi  is  ours, 
with  all  its  fountains,  springs,  and  floods,  and  woe 
to  the  statesman  who  shall  undertake  to  surren 
der  one  drop  of  its  water,  one  inch  of  its  soil,  to 
any  foreign  power."  We  can  well  understand 
how  these  brave  words  fell  with  kindling1  effect 

v!5 

among  the  masterful  and  ambitious  Westerners. 
Benton  was  born  in  North  Carolina,  and  his 
mother,  early  left  a  widow,  took  her  young  brood 
of  children  to  a  tract  of  land  owned  by  her  hus 
band,  twenty-five  miles  south  of  Nashville.  On 
this  land  the  family  plantation  was  laid  out,  and 
in  due  course  of  time  "  Widow  Benton's  tract" 
became  Bentontown,  a  name  under  which  it  is 
known  to  this  day.  Here  Thomas  Hart  Benton 
was  reared  under  the  tender  care  and  firm  man 
agement  of  his  mother,  a  woman  of  the  highest 
type.  In  the  library  left  by  his  father  the  lad 
found  a  goodly  array  of  the  best  books  of  that 
period.  These  he  studied  with  a  devouring 
eagerness,  and  he  has  said  in  his  autobiography 
that  his  knowledge  of  English  history  was  largely 
drawn  from  the  voluminous  "  State  Trials  "  which 
formed  a  part  of  this  library.  Benton's  educa 
tion  does  not  appear  to  have  been  at  any  time 
directed  by  any  other  guidance  than  his  own 
tastes  and  notions  of  what  was  desirable,  except 
when,  later  on,  under  the  encouragement  of  older 
friends,  he  mastered  the  intricacies  of  the  law 


THOMAS  H.  BENTON  97 

and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Of  his  mother  he 
says  in  his  autobiography :  "  All  the  minor  virt 
ues,  as  well  as  the  greater,  were  cherished  by 
her,  and  her  house,  the  resort  of  the  eminent 
men  of  the  time,  was  the  abode  of  temperance, 
modesty,  decorum ;  a  pack  of  cards  was  never 
seen  in  her  house.  From  such  a  mother  all  the 
children  received  the  impress  of  future  character, 
and  she  lived  to  see  the  fruits  of  her  pious  and 
liberal  cares — living  as  a  widow  above  fifty  years 
— and  to  see  her  eldest  son  half  through  his 
Senatorial  career  and  taking  his  place  among  the 
historic  men  of  the  country,  for  which  she  had 
begun  so  early  to  train  him.  These  details  de 
serve  to  be  noted,  though  small  in  themselves,  as 
showing  how  much  the  after  life  of  the  man  may 
depend  upon  the  early  care  and  guidance  of  a 
mother."  Benton  lived  a  temperate  and  abste 
mious  life ;  he  was  a  total  abstainer  from  his 
youth,  never  used  tobacco,  never  played  a  game 
of  chance,  and  did  not  as  a  rule  attend  public 
amusements.  When  questioned  about  his  tem 
perate  habits,  later  in  life,  he  used  to  say  :  "  My 
mother  did  not  wish  me  to  drink  wine  or  spirits, 
and  I  never  have." 

In  his  autobiography,  referring  to  his  wife, 
who  was  long  an  invalid,  he  said  :  "  Mrs.  Benton 
died  in  1854,  having  been  struck  with  paralysis  in 
1844,  and  from  the  time  of  that  calamity  her  hus 
band  was  never  known  to  go  to  any  place  of  fes 
tivity  or  amusement."  His  literary  work,  which 
was  great  and  laborious,  was  done  at  her  bedside 
during  these  years  of  pain  and  languishing. 
7 


98  STA  TESMEN 

But  there  was  another  side  to  Benton's  char 
acter.  He  lived  in  a  time  of  turbulence,  and  a 
certain  warlike  roughness  then  pervaded  all 
ranks  of  society  in  the  West.  His  first  notable 
quarrel  was  with  Andrew  Jackson  in  the  streets 
of  Nashville,  Tenn.  His  brother  Jesse  and  Will 
iam  Carroll  had  become  involved  in  a  duel. 
Jackson  was  Carroll's  second,  and  although  no 
blood  was  shed  in  the  duel,  the  two  Bentons, 
Carroll,  and  Jackson  and  some  of  their  friends, 
were  drawn  into  a  disgraceful  fracas.  Jackson 
advanced  upon  Colonel  Benton  and  struck  him 
over  the  head  with  a  riding-whip.  A  general  melee 
followed,  pistols  and  knives  were  freely  used, 
and  Jackson  came  out  of  this  promiscuous  con 
test  with  a  bullet  in  his  left  shoulder.  Later,  in 
St.  Louis,  while  Missouri  was  yet  a  Territory, 
and  Benton  was  editing  a  paper  and  slashing 
around  recklessly  in  every  direction,  he  was 
drawn  into  a  more  serious  quarrel  with  one 
Lucas.  The  result  was  a  duel,  in  which  Lucas 
was  killed.  They  had  fought  twice  on  Bloody 
Island,  near  St.  Louis,  a  well-known  duelling  re 
sort.  On  the  first  occasion  both  were  wounded  ; 
on  the  second,  Lucas  fell.  A  biographer  of 
Lucas's  family  has  recently  remarked,  with  un 
conscious  humor,  of  the  senior  Lucas :  "  This 
gentleman  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men 
who  ever  settled  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 
Toward  the  close  of  his  life  Judge 
Lucas  became  melancholy  and  dejected,  the  re 
sult  of  domestic  affliction,  for  six  of  his  sons  met 
death  by  violence."  It  is  barely  possible  that 


THOMAS  II.  BENTON  99 

the  five  sons,  of  whom  we  have  no  other  mention, 
came  to  their  deaths  by  quarrels  provoked. 

At  that  time  duelling-  was  common  through 
out  the  United  States,  more  especially  in  the 
South  and  West,  and  on  the  frontier  a  man  was 
not  only  expected  to  be  called  to  engage  in  a 
duel  as  principal  or  second  occasionally,  but 
also  to  challenge  whenever  he  considered  his 
"  honor  "  called  in  question. 

The  affray  with  Jackson  was  in  1813,  and  in 
his  autobiography  (dictated  when  Benton  was 
on  his  death-bed,  in  which  he  speaks  of  himself 
in  the  third  person)  the  writer  referred  to  the 
Nashville  fracas  with  profound  regret,  and 
added  :  "  A  duel  at  St.  Louis  ended  fatally,  of 
which  Colonel  Benton  has  not  been  heard  to 
speak  except  among  intimate  friends,  and  to  tell 
of  the  pang  which  went  through  his  heart  when 
he  saw  the  young  man  fall,  and  would  have  given 
the  world  to  see  him  restored  to  life.  As  the 
proof  of  the  manner  in  which  he  looks  upon  all 
these  scenes,  and  his  desire  to  bury  all  remem 
brance  of  them  forever,  he  has  had  all  those 
papers  burnt  which  relate  to  them,  that  future 
curiosity  or  industry  should  not  bring  to  light 
what  he  wishes  had  never  happened." 

The  bringing  in  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State, 
with  human  bondage  expressly  provided  for  in 
its  constitution,  caused  an  intense  excitement 
throughout  the  country.  It  was  this  act  which 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  what  was  known  as 
the  "  Missouri  Compromise."  Although  Benton 
was  himself  averse  to  the  further  extension  of 


100  STATESMEN 

slavery,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  advocate  the  ad 
mission  of  the  new  State  with  slavery  in  its  con 
stitution,  and  doubtless  his  newspaper  was  a  tre 
mendous  factor  in  the  problem  which  was  solved 
by  the  final  admission  of  the  State. 

He  was  now  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  al 
though  some  details  of  the  constitution  of  the 
new  State  remained  unsettled,  he  at  once  took 
his  seat.  In  the  somewhat  self-conscious  auto 
biography  which  I  have  just  quoted,  Benton 
thus  speaks  of  his  election  to  the  Senate :  "  From 
that  time  his  life  was  in  the  public  eye,  and  the 
bare  enumeration  of  the  measures  of  which  he 
was  author  and  the  prime  promoter  would  be  al 
most  a  history  of  Congress  legislation.  The 
enumeration  is  unnecessary  here.  The  long  list 
is  known  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land,  repeated  with  the  familiarity  of  house 
hold  words  from  the  great  cities  of  the  seaport 
to  the  lonely  cabins  of  the  frontier,  and  studied 
by  the  little  boys  who  feel  an  honorable  ambi 
tion  beginning  to  stir  within  their  bosoms  and  a 
laudable  desire  to  know  something  of  the  history 
of  their  country."  It  is  melancholy  to  reflect 
that  although  scarcely  three-quarters  of  a  cen 
tury  has  passed,  "the  little  boys"  of  whom  Ben- 
ton  speaks  with  so  much  assurance  probably 
know  very  little  of  "  the  measures  of  which  he 
was  author." 

In  the  Senate,  which  he  entered  in  1820,  he 
served  thirty  consecutive  years.  His  talents, 
which  were  very  great,  and  his  energies,  which 
were  tremendous,  were  devoted  to  an  infinite 


THOMAS  1L  BE  NT  ON  101 

variety  of  useful  measures.  The  land  laws  of 
the  country  early  engaged  his  attention.  A  pio 
neer  himself,  he  devoted  all  his  activities  to  re 
forming  the  statutes  and  to  facilitate  the  means 
by  which  public  lands  could  be  occupied  and 
owned  by  actual  settlers.  He  advocated  the 
securing  to  all  actual  settlerj  of  land  title  by  pre 
emption,  a  periodical  reduction  of  prices  after 
the  lands  had  been  a  long  time  in  market,  and 
donations  of  homesteads  to  worthy  and  indus 
trious  persons  who  might  be  too  poor  to  buy. 
With  a  dogged  persistence  peculiarly  his  own, 
Benton  forced  his  views  upon  these  subjects 
upon  Congress  year  in  and  year  out,  in  season 
and  out  of  season.  He  lived  to  see  nearly  every 
one  of  these  principles  finally  adopted  into  the 
land  system  of  the  United  States,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  homestead  law,  which  was  passed 
by  both  houses  of  Congress  and  vetoed  by  Bu 
chanan.  That  law,  however,  finally  became  op 
erative  in  1862,  during  the  administration  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  system  of  electing  President  and  Vice- 
President  by  the  so-called  Electoral  College  was 
another  topic  which  early  engaged  his  attention. 
He  advocated  in  1824  an  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution  to  abolish  the  Electoral  College  and  to 
make  the  vote  more  nearly  come  straight  from 
the  people.  On  this  topic  he  said :  "  I  should 
esteem  the  incorruptibility  of  the  people,  their 
disinterested  desire  to  get  the  best  man  for  Pres 
ident,  to  be  more  than  a  counterpoise  to  all  the 
advantages  which  might  be  derived  from  the 


102  STATESMEN 

superior  intelligence  of  a  more  enlightened  but 
smaller  and  therefore  more  corruptible  body.  I 
should  be  opposed  to  the  intervention  of  electors, 
because  the  double  process  to  elect  a  man  would 
paralyze  the  spirit  of  the  people  and  destroy 
the  life  of  an  election  itself.  Doubtless  this  ma 
chinery  was  introduced  into  our  Constitution  for 
the  purpose  of  softening  the  action  of  the  demo 
cratic  element,  but  it  also  softens  the  interest  of 
the  people  in  the  result  of  the  election  itself.  It 
places  them  at  too  great  a  distance  from  their 
first  servant.  It  interposes  a  body  of  men  be 
tween  the  people  and  the  object  of  their  choice 
and  gives  a  false  direction  to  the  gratitude  of  the 
President  elected.  He  feels  himself  indebted  to 
the  electors  who  collected  the  votes  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  not  to  the  people  who  gave  their  votes 
to  the  electors."  Our  later  experience  in  politi 
cal  affairs  has  shown  that  Benton  in  this  case 
was  partly  right  and  partly  wrong. 

Very  much  to  his  credit,  too,  was  his  attitude 
on  what  was  called  the  Spoils  System.  In  his 
autobiography  he  makes  it  a  point  to  say  that 
none  of  his  blood  relations  had  ever  asked  for 
office  and  none  had  ever  mingled  in  any  schemes 
for  the  division  of  patronage.  During  Jackson's 
time  was  imported  into  the  system  of  national 
government  the  plan  of  making  public  office  a 
reward  for  partisan  service.  Benton,  later  in 
life,  said  :  "  The  expiration  of  the  four  years'  term 
came  to  be  considered  as  the  termination  and 
vacation  of  all  the  offices  on  which  it  fell  and  the 
creation  of  vacancies,  to  be  filled  at  the  option  of 


THOMAS  Jf.  UK  NT  ON  K)3 

the  President."  He  added  :  "  I  consider  sweep 
ing  removals  as  now  practised  by  both  parties  a 
great  political  evil  in  our  country,  injurious  to 
individuals,  to  the  public  service,  to  the  purity 
of  elections,  and  to  the  harmony  and  union  of  the 
people.  .  .  .  It  converts  elections  into  scram 
bles  for  office  and  degrades  the  Government  into 
an  office  for  rewards  and  punishments,  and  di 
vides  the  people  of  the  Union  into  two  adverse 
parties,  each  in  its  turn  as  it  becomes  dominant 
to  strip  and  proscribe  the  other." 

Although  a  slave-holder  from  a  slave  State, 
Benton,  with  his  broad-minded  and  generous 
instincts,  could  not -look  with  any  degree  of  tol 
erance  upon  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
Territories,  and  when  John  C.  Calhoun  began  to 
proclaim  his  fine-spun  theory  of  State  rights  and 
the  right  of  nullification,  Benton  was  by  the  side 
of  Andrew  Jackson  battling  for  the  Union  and 
opposing  nullification.  His  attitude  in  this  long 
and  arduous  contest  made  him  the  life-long  foe 
of  Calhoun,  who,  though  he  forgave  others  who 
fought  against  him,  notably  Clay  and  Webster, 
the  two  Whigs,  could  not  forgive  Benton,  the 
Jacksonian  Democrat.  When  the  project  to  an 
nex  Texas  came  before  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  Benton  raised  his  voice  against  the 
scheme.  He  boldly  and  forcibly  disclosed  the 
real  motives  of  the  promoters  of  this  great  en 
terprise,  and  said  that  although  it  was  mixed  up 
with  speculative  jobs  and  political  intrigues,  dis 
union  was  at  the  bottom  of  it  all.  He  said  that 
the  cry  had  already  been  raised  :  "  Texas  without 


104  STATESMEN 

the  Union  rather  than  the  Union  without  Tex 
as,"  and  he  said  that  "a  Southern  confederacy 
stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Californias 
is  the  cherished  vision  of  disappointed  ambition/' 

He  was  with  Jackson  also  in  his  war  upon  the 
United  States  Bank,  and  early  in  1831  he  had 
moved  against  a  recharter  of  that  institution, 
thus  showing  himself  really  in  advance  of  Jack 
son  in  his  hostility  to  the  bank.  He  did  not 
assail  the  bank  as  unconstitutional,  but  rather 
dwelt  upon  the  aspects  of  the  case  which  would 
be  more  likely  to  attract  public  attention.  He 
said  that  the  bank  had  too  much  power  over  the 
people  and  the  Government,  over  business  and 
over  politics,  and  was  too  much  disposed  to  exer 
cise  that  power  to  the  prejudice  of  freedom  and 
equality  which  should  prevail  in  a  republic. 

He  said :  "  I  am  willing  to  see  the  charter  ex 
pire  without  providing  any  substitute  for  the 
present  bank.  I  am  willing  to  see  the  currency 
of  the  Federal  Government  left  to  the  hard 
money  mentioned  and  intended  in  the  Constitu 
tion."  Again  he  said  :  "  Gold  and  silver  are  the 
best  currency  for  a  republic.  It  suits  the  men  of 
middle  property  and  the  working-people  best, 
and  if  I  was  going  to  establish  a  workingman's 
party  it  should  be  on  the  basis  of  hard  money— 
a  hard-money  party  against  a  paper  party."  Ut 
terances  like  these,  which  attracted  wide  atten 
tion  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  gave 
him  the  nickname  of  "  Old  Bullion,"  a  title  by 
which  he  was  known  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
One  of  Benton's  darling  projects  was  the  devel- 


106  STATESMEN 

opmcnt  of  what  is  called  the  Sub-Treasury  sys 
tem  of  the  United  States.  It  was  first  made 
known  under  the  title  of  the  Independent  Treas 
ury  Bill.  He  succeeded  in  getting  it  through 
the  Senate  twice.  The  first  time  it  was  lost  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  but  on  the  sec 
ond  venture,  toward  the  close  of  President  Van 
Buren's  term,  his  firmness  and  pertinacity  were 
rewarded.  The  bill  passed  the  Senate  by  a  con 
siderable  majority,  went  through  the  House  after 
a  bitter  contest,  and  became  a  law.  From  this 
arose  the  system  which  to  the  present  day  is 
satisfactorily  known  as  the  Sub-Treasury. 

Another  of  his  hobbies  (if  a  statesman's  views 
can  be  called  a  hobby)  was  the  repeal  of  the  salt 
tax.  The  Government  laid  an  odious  tax  upon 
salt,  and  while  he  devoted  himself  to  the  general 
subject  of  the  tariff  in  regard  to  specific  abuses, 
he  advocated  with  great  persistence  the  plan  of 
making  salt  free ;  and  on  all  occasions,  whether 
pertinent  or  not,  with  dogged  persistence  he 
lugged  in  the  salt  tax  and  insisted  upon  its  repeal. 
In  his  "  Thirty  Years'  View,"  speaking  of  him 
self  and  his  attacks  on  this  odious  duty,  he  says : 
"  He  called  it  a  heartless  and  tyrant  tax,  as  inex 
orable  as  it  was  omnipotent  and  omnipresent;  a 
tax  which  no  economy  could  avoid,  no  poverty 
could  shun,  no  privation  escape,-  no  cunning 
elude,  no  force  resist,  no  dexterity  avert,  no 
curses  repulse,  no  prayers  could  deprecate." 
To  this  he  added :  "  Twelve  years  have  passed 
away,  two  years  more  than  the  siege  of  Troy 
lasted,  since  I  began  this  contest,  Nothing  dis- 


THOMAS  IT.  ttENTON  107 

heartened  bv  so  many  defeats  in  so  long"  a  time, 
I  prosecute  the  war  with  unabated  vigor,  and 
relying  upon  the  goodness  of  the  cause,  firmly 
calculate  upon  ultimate  and  final  success."  One 
cannot  help  thinking  that  although  the  tax  was 
odious  and  doubtless  oppressive,  the  eloquence, 
erudition,  and  legal  learning  lavished  upon  at 
tempts  to  abolish  it  were  hardly  in  proportion 
to  the  extent  of  the  evil  complained  of. 

Benton  not  only  loved  work  for  work's  sake, 
but  his  spirit  was  indomitable,  defiant,  and  ag 
gressive.  He  was  simply  unable  to  comprehencT 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "  defeat."  Repulsed 
again  and  again,  he  returned  to  the  attack  with 
a  freshness  and  vigor  that  bore  all  before  it.  His 
will  was  iron,  his  purpose  inflexible,  and  doubt 
less  a  great  proportion  of  the  successes  in  his 
long  and  stormy  career  were  due  to  his  persist 
ence  rather  than  to  the  intrinsic  merits  of  the 
cause  advocated.  His  support  of  the  Sub-Treas 
ury  scheme  and  its  ultimate  success  is  one  ex 
ample  of  his  triumph  after  many  defeats,  and 
his  magnificent  and  picturesque  crusade  at  the 
head  of  the  so-called  expungers  is  another.  Jack 
son  was  not  willing  to  rest  on  his  laurels  when 
he  had  succeeded  in  defeating  all  attempts  to  re- 
charter  the  United  States  Bank,  but  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1833  he  ordered  the  deposits  of  the  United 
States  Government  removed  from  the  bank  and 
placed  in  certain  State  banks.  These  institutions 
were  subsequently  known  as  the  "  pet  banks." 
Jackson  met  with  some  difficulty  in  getting  a 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who  would  venture 


108  STATESMEN 

upon  such  a  step,  but  he  finally  found  one  in 
Roger  B.  Taney,  a  man  who  afterward,  as  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  was  able  to  do  much  more  mischief  than 
he  did  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  A  tre 
mendous  storm  broke  out  in  Congress  over  the 
removal  of  the  deposits.  Clay  introduced  a  res 
olution  directing  their  return.  This  was  defeated 
in  the  House,  and  Clay  then  introduced  in  the 
Senate  a  series  of  motions,  the  most  important  of 
which  was  his  famous  resolution  censuring  Pres 
ident  Jackson  for  his  action  in  regard  to  the  de 
posits.  This  resolution  was  finally  passed  by  a 
small  majority,  and  Jackson,  frantic  with  rage, 
sent  in  a  written  protest,  which  the  Senate  re 
fused  to  receive.  The  country  was  agitated,  the 
Jacksonians  and  anti-Jacksonians  furiously  assail 
ing  each  other  over  the  question.  Benton  imme 
diately  began  a  vigorous  campaign  for  the  ex 
punging  of  the  resolution  of  censure  from  the 
record  of  the  Senate.  He  was  met  with  an  oppo 
sition  quite  as  vigorous  as  his  own,  headed  by 
Calhoun,  Clay,  and  Webster.  Finally,  at  the  very 
close  of  Jackson's  administration,  Benton  found 
himself  able  to  make  the  move  which  was  carried 
to  a  prosperous  conclusion.  The  Expungers  held 
a  caucus  and  agreed  to  prevent  any  adjournment 
until  the  resolution  of  expunging  was  finally  car 
ried.  Benton,  like  the  prudent  general  that  he 
was,  provided  in  one  of  the  committee  rooms 
"  an  ample  supply  of  cold  hams,  turkeys,  rounds 
of  beef,  pickles,  wines,  and  cups  of  hot  coffee,"  to 
which  the  faint-hearted  and  weary  Expungers  oc- 


THOMAS  If.  BENTON  109 

casionally  resorted  to  refresh  themselves  withal ; 
and  at  last  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  was  or 
dered  by  resolution  to  draw  black  lines  around 
the  offensive  entry  in  the  Senate  journal.  Jack 
son,  to  show  his  gratitude  and  appreciation  of 
the  services  of  the  Expungers,  gave  them  and 
their  wives  a  great  dinner  at  the  White  House, 
Benton  sitting  at  the  head  of  the  table. 

The  really  heroic  era  of  Benton's  long  career 
was  that  in  which  he  fought  for  the  National  O 
Union  and  defended  the  Republic  against*  the  ( 
insidious  schemes  of  the  nullifiers  and  secession 
ists.  The  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  hacTex- 
pressly  excluded  slavery  from  the  territory  from 
which  Kansas  and  Nebraska  were  afterward 
carved.  When  the  bill  to  repeal  this  compromise 
came  up  in  the  Senate,  Benton  attacked  it  with 
enormous  vigor,  characterizing  it  as  "a  bungling 
attempt  to  smuggle  slavery  into  the  territory  and 
throughout  all  the  country  up  to  the  Canada  line 
and  out  to  the  Rocky  Mountains."  By  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  slavery  and  freeclbm  "" 
were  left  to  shift  for  themselves  in  the  vast  re 
gion  now  occupied  by  all  of  the  States  west  and 
north  of  Missouri.  The  compromise,  Benton 
contended,  was  right,  but  no  greater  concession 
of  principle  should  be  made.  The  time  had  now 
come,  he  said,  when  the  extension  of  slavery 
should  be  opposed  in  every  constitutional  way, 
and  "  it  was  an  outrage  to  repeal  a  compromise 
which  in  its  very  nature  was  humiliating  to  the 
North."  Said  he  :  "  The  South  divided  and  took 
half,  and  now  it  will  not  do  to  claim  the  other  half." 


110  STATESMEN 

Against  this  insidious  aggression  of  the  slave 
power,  Benton  spoke  with  great  boldness  and 
warmth.  He  said:  u  I  have  stood  upon  the  Mis 
souri  Compromise  for  about  thirty  years,  and 
mean  to  stand  upon  it  to  the  end  of  my  life.  It 
is  a  binding  covenant  upon  both  parties,  and  the 
more  so  upon  the  South,  as  she  imposed  it." 

Benton's  noble  and  manly  fight  was  in  vain. 
He  incurred  the  implacable  hostility  of  the  slave 
power  of  the  South  and  of  its  leaders  in  the  Sen 
ate.  His  patriotic  and  determined  attitude  final 
ly  cost  him  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  and  from  this 
point  onward,  we  may  say,  the  tide  ran  against 
him.  His  enemies,  in  the  midst  of  his  fight  against 
the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories,  cir 
culated  a  series  of  resolutions  which  were  based 
upon  those  of  Calhoun,  declaring  that  Congress 
had  no  power  over  the  question  of  slavery  in  the 
Territories.  These  were  sent  to  all  of  the  slave- 
holding  States,  and  were  finally  introduced  into 
the  Missouri  Legislature.  The  Missouri  resolu 
tions  were  insolent  and  almost  traitorous  in  tone, 
and  demanded  that  slavery  should  be  permitted 
to  exist  in  all  new  States  hereafter  to  be  admitted, 
and  instructed  their  Senators  to  vote  according 
ly.  When  these  resolutions  came  to  Congress, 
where  they  were  introduced  by  Benton's  col 
league,  Atchison,  they  were  boldly  denounced 
by  Benton  as  treasonable  and  offensive  in  the 
highest  degree.  He  said  that  they  did  not  ex 
press  the  true  opinions  of  the  voters  of  Missouri, 
and  he  would  appeal  from  the  Legislature  to  the 
people.  Benton's  colleague  was  subsequently 


THOMAS  II.  KENTON  111 

known  as  "  Dave"  Atchison,  and  was  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  border  ruffians  who  invaded  Kansas 
in  the  early  and  stormy  days  of  that  Territory. 

But  Benton's  protests  were  in  vain.  The  issue 
between  the  two  sides,  "the  Hards,"  as  Benton's 
followers  were  called,  and  "  the  Softs,"  was  now 
sharply  defined.  Benton  went  home  to  Mis 
souri,  stumped  the  State  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  and  in  a  series  of  many  wonderful  speeches 
advocated  the  doctrines  which  he  had  proclaimed 
in  the  Senate  and  which  had  been  contravened 
so  contemptuously  by  the  Legislature  of  the 
State.  Neither  faction  was  able  to  secure  a  ma 
jority  of  the  Legislature  which  was  to  have  the 
duty  of  electing  a  successor  to  Benton,  whose 
term  was  about  to  expire ;  and,  after  a  deadlock 
lasting  some  weeks,  the  Whigs  went  to  the  sup 
port  of  the  "  Softs  "  and  elected  Benton's  oppo 
nent;  and  so,  after  serving  the  State  and  the 
Nation  .faithfully  for  thirty  years  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  Benton  was  turned  out  for  hav 
ing  stood  manfully  and  loyally  by  the  Union. 

It  is  impossible  to  avoid  a  comparison  at  this 
point  between  Benton  and  some  of  the  Northern 
Senators,  notably  Silas  Wright,  of  New  York,  and 
Daniel  Webster,  of  Massachusetts.  A  Southern 
man  from  a  slave-holding  State,  Benton  did  not 
hesitate  to  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery  into 
the  Territories,  to  condemn  the  fugitive  slave 
act  of  1850,  and  to  stand  manfully  and  effectively 
against  the  slavery  extremists  and  disunionists. 
He  rose  to  meet  every  emergency,  and  up  to  the 
latest  hour  of  his  Congressional  life  could  always 


112  STATESMEN 

be  counted  upon  in  the  ranks  of  the  devoted 
patriots  who  defended  the  Union  and  its  institu 
tions  of  freedom. 


When  defeated  for  the  Senate,  he  was  not  in 
the  least  cast  down  by  this  apparently  over 
whelming  reverse.  Although  now  an  old  man, 
he  kept  up  the  fight  as  bitterly  as  ever,  and  in 
1852  was  returned  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  as  a  Union  Democrat.  Defeated  for  a  sec 
ond  term  in  the  House,  he  took  the  field,  indefati 
gable  as  ever,  as  a  Union  Democratic  candidate 
for  Governor  of  Missouri.  The  fight  was  a  tri 
angular  one.  The  Native  Americans,  or  Know 
Nothings,  had  set  their  candidate  in  the  field  ;  the 
secession  Democrats  another;  and  Benton  was 
the  choice  of  the  Union  Democrats.  Although 
seventy-four  years  old,  his  mind  was  as  vigorous 
as  ever,  and  with  all  the  freshness  and  buoyancy 
of  his  early  manhood  he  plunged  into  one  of  the 
most  strenuous  and  exhaustive  political  fights  of 
his  lifetime.  During  the  course  of  his  campaign 
he  traversed  the  entire  State,  travelling  in  all 
twelve  hundred  miles  and  making  forty  speeches, 
each  one  of  which  was  two  or  three  hours  in 
length.  Again,  however,  he  was  destined  to 
meet  with  defeat.  The  vote  was  quite  evenly  di 
vided  among  the  three  candidates,  but  Benton 
was  the  third  in  the  race,  and  the  extreme  pro- 
slavery  men  elected  their  candidate  by  a  small 
plurality.  At  last  his  political  race  was  run. 

Very  soon  after  he  lost  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  he  set  out  to  finish  his  "  Thirty 
Years'  View,"  a  work  of  the  first  importance 


THOMAS  H.  BENT  ON  113 

in  political  history,  which  he  had  undertaken 
while  in  the  Senate.  He  now  returned  to  this, 
and  took  it  up  with  refreshing  zest.  This  com 
pleted,  he  tackled  another  task,  an  "  Abridgment 
of  the  Debates  of  Congress  ;  "  and  when  his  house 
burned  down,  destroying  his  materials  and  partly 
completed  volumes,  he  resumed  his  labor  next 
day  as  though  nothing  had  happened.  It  was 
this  spirit  of  unconquerableness  that  carried  him 
through  his  strenuous  and  stormy  career  with  so 
long  a  train  of  successes  following. 

In  1856  he  voted,  like  the  sturdy  old  partisan 
he  was,  for  James  Buchanan,  although  his  son-in- 
law,  John  C.  Fremont,  whom  he  greatly  admired, 
was  candidate  against  Buchanan.  Benton  took 
much  pride  in  Fremont's  achievements  and  in  his 
courageous  and  dashing  expeditions.  In  his 
"  Thirty  Years'  View"  he  finds  it  impossible 
to  conceal  his  amusement  and  satisfaction  over 
the  fact  that  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Fremont,  sup 
pressed  orders  countermanding  Fremont's  second 
expedition  in  1844.  Fremont  had  left  his  home 
in  Missouri  when  these  orders  arrived  from  the 
War  Department,  and  Mrs.  Fremont,  opening 
the  dispatches,  as  requested  by  her  husband 
on  his  departure,  saw  that  if  they  were  for 
warded,  Fremont  would  be  obliged  to  return. 
She  withheld  them,  with  the  knowledge  and 
warm  approval  of  her  father.  Benton,  speaking 
of  this  (to  him)  amusing  incident,  said  that  "  this 
hinderance  should  be  charged  to  the  account 
of  West  Point  officers,  to  whose  pursuit  of  easy 
service  Fremont's  adventurous  expeditions  were 
8 


1U  STATESMEN 

a  reproach."  Benton,  it  should  be  said,  lost  no 
opportunity  to  gibe  the  West  Pointers,  whom  he 
hated  with  a  perfect  hatred.  He  had  himself 
been  commissioned  in  the  United  States  army 
and  had  served  as  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  war 
of  1812,  when  he  was  an  aide-de-camp  to  General 
Jackson.  Some  of  Benton's  attacks  upon  the 
army  and  navy,  both  of  which  had  within  his 
lifetime  covered  themselves  with  glory  in  our 
contests  with  Great  Britain,  were  inspired  by 
partisan  prejudice  rather  than  any  sound  objec 
tion  to  the  little  navy  and  army  then  maintained 
at  the  expense  of  the  Government.  He  ridiculed 
every  measure  designed  to  promote  the  efficiency 
of  either  branch  of  the  public  service,  and  in 
sisted  upon  a  reduction  of  both  arms  of  the  ser 
vice  to  what  he  called  "  a  peace  footing." 

Posterity  should  not  lose  sight  of  Benton's 
wise  and  prophetic  estimate  of  the  growth  of  the 
Republic  in  the  Northwest.  When  our  dispute 
over  the  Northwestern  boundary  began,  it  was 
urged  that  the  region  demanded  by  Benton  and 
his  supporters  was  not  valuable  for  tillage  or  for 
mining.  Benton  tartly  replied  :  "  We  want  it,  any 
how  ;  "  and  when  imminence  of  war  with  Great 
Britain  was  urged  by  the  more  timorous  mem 
bers  of  the  Senate,  he  flung  out  this  note  of  de 
fiance  :  "  I  think  she  will  take  offence,  do  what 
we  may  in  relation  to  this  territory.  She  wants 
it  herself,  and  means  to  quarrel  for  it  if  she  does 
not  fight  for  it.  .  .  .  Neither  nations  nor 
individuals  ever  escape  danger  by  fearing  it ; 
they  must  face  it,  and  defy  it.  An  abandonment 


The   Benton   Statue   at   St.  Louis. 


116  STATESMEN 

of  a  right  for  fear  of  bringing  on  an  attack,  in 
stead  of  keeping  it  off,  will  inevitably  bring  on 
the  outrage  that  is  dreaded."  This  was  while 
the  Nation  was  still  harassed  by  the  progress 
of  the  Texas  annexation  scheme  in  the  South 
west.  James  K.  Polk  was  elected  on  the  basis 
of  a  settlement  with  England  which  should  give 
us  as  our  northern  boundary  fifty-four  degrees 
and  forty  minutes,  the  slogan  of  his  campaign 
being  "  54-40,  or  fight."  History  records,  how 
ever,  that  in  the  final  settlement  of  that  problem 
our  boundary-line  on  the  north  was  fixed  at  49, 
by  which  we  lost  the  magnificent  territory  now 
occupied  by  Manitoba,  the  Northwest  Territory, 
and  British  Columbia,  thereby  interposing  a  for 
eign  power  between  our  own  possessions  and 
those  which  we  have  since  acquired  from  Russia. 
It  should  be  said  that  Benton  acquiesced  in  this 
settlement  without  much  ado. 

Benton  was  not  a  great  orator,  as  Webster 
was,  but  he  was  a  powerful  pleader  and  an  in 
domitable  spirit,  and  his  nature  was  cast  in  a 
heroic  mould.  Like  most  of  the  public  speakers 
of  his  time,  he  affected  classic  allusion  and  plen 
tifully  interlarded  his  speeches  with  references  to 
the  ancients.  He  had  a  great  fondness  for  a  bar 
barous  phrase  of  his  own  invention  which  he 
called  the  "  principle  demos  krateo."  This  phrase, 
which  he  had  borrowed  from  the  Greek,  he  used 
and  misused  on  every  possible  occasion  in  speak 
ing  and  in  writing.  Like  others  of  his  time,  he 
drew  copiously  from  Greek  and  Roman  history 
to  illustrate  his  meaning ;  as  we  have  seen,  the 


THOMAS  II.  B  PINT  ON  117 

Trojan  war  was  made  use  of  by  way  of  illustrat 
ing-  his  fight  against  the  salt  tax. 

One  of  his  biographers  (Roosevelt)  has  paid 
to  Benton  this  just  tribute,  with  which  this  im 
perfect  sketch  may  very  properly  be  concluded : 
"  He  was  a  faithful  friend  and  a  bitter  jfoe.  He 
was  vain,  proud,  utterly_fe_arless,  and  quite  un 
able  to  comprehend  'such  emotions  as  are  ex 
pressed  by  the  terms  despondency  and  yielding. 
Without  being  a  great  orator  or  writer,  or  even 
an  original  thinker,  he  yet  possessed  marked 
ability,  and  his  abounding  vitality  and  marvel 
lous  memory,  his  indomitable  energy  and  indus 
try,  and  his  tenacious  persistency  and  personal 
courage,  all  combined  to  give  him  a  position  and 
influence  such  as  few  American  statesmen  have 
ever  held.  His  character  grew  steadily  to  the 
very  last.  He  made  better  speeches  and  was 
better  able  to  face  new  problems  when  past 
three-score  and  ten  than  in  his  early  youth  or 
middle  age.  He  possessed  a  rich  fund  of  politi 
cal,  legal,  and  historical  learning,  and  every  sub 
ject  that  he  ever  handled  showed  traces  of  care 
ful  and  thorough  study.  He  was  ever  courteous 
except  when  provoked.  His  courage  was  proof 
against  all  fear,  and  he  shrank  from  no  contest, 
personal  or  political.  He  was  sometimes  narrow- 
minded,  and  always  wilful  and  passionate,  but 
he  was  honest  and  truthful.  At  all  times  and  in 
all  places  he  held  every  good  gift  he  had  com 
pletely  at  the  service  of  the  American  Federal 
Union." 

Benton  died  in  the  city  of  Washington  in  1858, 


118  STATESMEN 

to  his  latest  breath,  and  while  he  could  scarcely 
speak  above  a  whisper,  keeping  up  his  laborious 
habits.  In  these  last  dying  moments  he  dictated 
the  autobiographical  sketch  which  has  been  re 
ferred  to  in  the  early  part  of  this  chapter,  and 
died  leaving  his  "  Abridgment  of  Debates"  in 
complete. 


William   H.  Scward. 


V. 

WILLIAM  H.  SEVVARD. 

YOUNG  men  will  read  with  sympathy  William 
H.  Seward's  account  of  his  first  striking  out  for 
himself,  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  His  father  was 
a  gentleman  of  education,  some  wealth,  and  high 
social  and  political  position,  in  Central  New 
York.  Harry  Seward,  as  he  was  called  in  his 
boyhood,  was  sent  to  Union  College,  Schenec- 
tady.  A  disagreement  between  Harry  and  his  fa 
ther  arose  out  of  some  financial  matters.  Young 
Seward  complained,  in  his  own  account  of  this 
affair,  written  many  years  afterward,  that  the 
more  rigid  his  economy,  the  more  limited  was  the 
appropriation  for  his  expenses.  Finally,  the  mis 
understanding  was  increased,  as  he  says,  "  by  the 
intrusion  of  the  accomplished  tailors  of  Schenec- 
tady,"  whose  bills  his  father  thought  were  unrea 
sonable  ;  and  as  the  lad  could  not  submit  to  the 
shame  of  loss  of  credit,  he  resolved  upon  inde 
pendence  and  self-maintenance.  Accordingly,  on 
the  first  of  January,  1819,  without  any  notice  to 
his  father  or  anyone  else,  he  left  Union  College, 
as  he  thought  forever,  and  went  to  New  York  by 
stage-coach,  where  he  took  passage  with  a  fellow- 
student  for  Savannah.  After  an  uneventful  voy 
age  of  seven  days  from  New  York,  the  vessel 


120  STATESMEN 

anchored  in  the  river  at  Savannah,  and  he  rode 
by  stage  wagon  to  Augusta,  where  he  hired  a 
gig,  which  landed  him  at  Mount  Zion,  and  he 
was  among  friends  from  Orange  County,  N.  Y. 
Not  being  any  longer  able  to  hire  a  conveyance, 
he  took  the  road  on  foot  to  Eatonton,  the  capital 
of  Putnam  County,  Ga.  ;  he  soon  found  himself 
with  nine  shillings  and  sixpence,  New  York  cur 
rency,  soiled  with  the  wear  of  travel,  and  almost 
unable  to  resume  his  journey  ;  but  he  finally  made 
his  way  to  Eatonton,  where  he  met  the  treasurer 
of  the  State,  who  Avas  one  of  the  Board  of  Direc 
tors  of  the  Union  Academy  of  Eatonton.  After 
a  cursory  examination  of  the  young  man,  the 
Directors  agreed  to  accept'him  as  preceptor  of 
the  new  institution  at  the  munificent  sum  of  one 
hundred  dollars  a  year  and  his  board.  As  the 
academy  was  not  yet  finished,  the  directors 
agreed  to  compensate  him  for  the  delay  by  fur 
nishing  him  with  a  horse  and  carriage  in  which 
he  could  travel  in  any  part  of  the  State,  and  in 
the  interval  he  was  to  be  boarded  among  the 
directors  without  charge.  This  important  mat 
ter  being  disposed  of,  one  of  the  directors  of  the 
institution  said :  "  I  am  going  to  state  some 
thing  which,  if  you  prefer,  you  need  not  reply. 
In  your  absence  from  the  meeting  of  trustees 
they  asked  how  old  you  were.  I  answered  that 
I  thought  you  were  twenty.  They  replied  that 
that  seemed  very  young  for  such  an  enterprise." 
Mr.  Seward  says  in  his  account  of  this  incident : 
"  I  candidly  confessed  to  my  generous  patron 
that  I  was  only  seventeen."  "  Well,"  said  he, 


WILLIAM  IT.  REWARD  121 

"we  will  leave  them  to  find   that  out  for  them 
selves." 

In  brief,  then,  Harry  Seward  had  run  away 
from  home  to  undertake  the  management  of  the 
Union  College  at  Eatonton,  Ga.,  where,  as  he 
fondly  hoped,  he  was  concealed  from  the  pur 
suit  of  his  family.  He  was  very  much  dismayed, 
however,  by  the  intelligence  that  a  packet  of  let 
ters  had  been  transmitted  to  Richardson,  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  Branch  Bank  at  Sa 
vannah,  from  the  paternal  Seward,  at  Florida, 
N.  Y. ,  in  which  was  a  letter  from  the  father  to 
the  son  describing  the  paternal  anguish  and  so 
licitude  caused  by  the  young  fellow's  flight  from 
college  and  from  home.  The  senior  Seward  im 
plored  his  wandering  boy  to  return,  and  he  sent 
the  necessary  funds  to  pay  his  expenses  and  for 
the  bills  that  he  had  incurred  in  the  meantime. 
Young  Seward  sent  his  father  an  Eatonton  news 
paper  which  contained  an  advertisement  an 
nouncing  to  the  people  of  the  State  of  Georgia 
that  "  William  H.  Seward,  a  gentleman  of  talents, 
educated  at  Union  College,  N.  Y.,  had  been  du 
ly  appointed  principal  of  the  Union  Academy," 
etc.  His  indignant  father,  having  read  the 
newspaper  advertisement,  informed  the  presi 
dent  and  trustees  of  the  college  who  and  what 
kind  of  a  person  this  new  principal  of  their  acad 
emy  was ;  that  "  he  was  a  much-indulged  son 
who,  without  just  cause  and  provocation,  had  ab 
sconded  from  Union  College,  thereby  disgracing 
a  well-acquired  position  and  plunging  his  parents 
into  profound  shame  and  grief."  The  upshot  of 


122  STATESMEN 

this  business  was  that  young  Seward,  a  few  weeks 
later,  returned  to  college,  and  in  due  course  was 
graduated  with  all  the  honors. 

It  was  during  these  six  months  in  Georgia  that 
he  first  came  in  contact  with  Southern  slavery. 
In  his  "  Autobiography,"  he  says  :  "  Although  the 
planters  were  new  and  generally  poor,  yet  I  think 
the  slaves  exceeded  the  white  population."  No 
jealousy  or  prejudice  at  that  day  was  manifested 
in  regard  to  inquiries  or  discussions  of  slavery, 
but  at  the  same  time  there  were  two  kindred 
popular  prejudices  highly  developed.  One  was 
a  suspicion,  amounting  to  hatred,  of  all  emanci 
pated  persons,  or  free  negroes,  as  they  were 
called.  The  other  a  strong  prejudice  of  an  ab 
stract  nature  against  the  lower  class  of  adventur 
ers  from  the  North,  called  '  Yankees/  The  plant 
ers  entertained  me  always  cordially,  as  it  seemed 
from  a  regard  to  my  acquirements,  while  the 
negroes  availed  themselves  of  every  occasion  to 
converse  with  a  stranger  who  came  from  *  the  big 
North,'  where  they  understood  their  race  to  be 
free,  but  which  they  believed  to  be  so  far  distant 
as  to  be  forever  inaccessible  to  them."  Seward 
gained  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  negroes 
without  exciting  any  jealousy  on  the  part  of  their 
masters.  The  effect  of  his  observations,  he  says, 
was  to  confirm  and  strengthen  the  opinions  he 
had  already  entertained  adverse  to  slavery. 

It  should  be  said  that  in  his  childhood  slavery 
had  not  yet  been  abolished  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  He  early  discovered  in  his  own  home 
that,  besides  his  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters, 


WILLIAM  II.  SEWA.RD  123 

all  of  whom  occupied  the  parlor  and  principal 
bedrooms  of  the  mansion,  there  were  in  the 
family  two  black  women  and  one  black  boy,  who 
remained  exclusive  tenants  of  the  kitchen  and 
the  garret  over  it.  The  lad  found  their  apart 
ment  much  more  attractive  than  the  parlor,  and 
their  conversation  a  relief  from  the  severe  de 
corum  that  there  prevailed.  He  knew  that 
these  people  were  black,  but  he  did  not  know 
why,  and  if  his  parents  ever  uttered  before  him 
a  word  of  disapproval  of  slavery,  there  Avas  cer 
tainly  nothing  that  he  ever  heard  that  made  him 
think  the  negroes  inferior  to  the. white  person. 
The  two  younger  of  his  father's  slaves  attended 
school  and  sat  by  his  side  if  they  chose,  but  he 
noticed  that  no  other  black  children  went  there. 
Later  on  in  life,  after  Seward  had  taken  to 
himself  a  wife  and  was  on  a  tour  through  North 
ern  Virginia,  in  1835,  he  saw  this  spectacle  at 
a  country  tavern  where  he  had  arrived  just  at 
sunset :  "  A  cloud  of  dust  was  seen  slowly  com 
ing  down  the  road,  from  which  proceeded  a  con 
fused  noise  of  moaning,  weeping,  and  shouting. 
Presently  reaching  the  gate  of  the  stable-yard, 
it  disclosed  itself.  Ten  naked  little  boys,  be 
tween  six  and  twelve  years  old,  tied  together 
two  and  two  by  their  wrists,  were  all  fastened  to 
a  long  rope  and  followed  by  a  tall,  gaunt  white 
man,  who  with  his  long  lash  whipped  up  the  sad 
and  weary  procession,  drove  it  to  the  horse- 
trough  to  drink,  and  thence  to  a  shed,  where 
they  lay  down  on  the  ground  and  sobbed  and 
moaned  themselves  to  sleep.  These  were  chil- 


124  STATESMEN 

dren  gathered  up  at  different  plantations  by  the 
trader,  and  were  to  be  driven  down  to  Richmond 
to  be  sold  at  auction  and  taken  South."  This 
piteous  scene  made  an  impression  indelible  in 
the  mind  of  Seward. 

It  was  on  .this  same  journey,  when  homeward 
bound,  that  Seward  and  his  wife  passed  through 
Washington,  where  he  was  permitted  an  infor 
mal  interview  with  President  Jackson,  of  whom 
he  received  a  vivid  impression.  Jackson's  man 
ner  was  courtly  but  dogmatic,  and  he  said  of 
him  :  "  On  every  subject,  of  whatever  magnitude, 
the  President,  was  peremptory,  and  it  must  be 
added  that,  as  far  as  his  opinions  were  expressed, 
they  were  intelligent  and  perspicuous."  As  I 
have  said,  Seward's  circumstances  were  easy. 
He  early  learned  to  save  from  his  professional 
earnings.  He  never  lived  extravagantly,  but 
hospitably,  to  spend  freely  and  give  liberally. 
He  was  considered  aristocratic  in  his  tastes  and 
pursuits,  and  was  certainly  brought  up  in  an 
atmosphere  of  refinement  and  culture  somewhat 
unusual  to  those  early  times.  His  tastes  were 
literary,  and  although  he  naturally  took  to  poli 
tics  as  soon  as  he  had  arrived  at  the  years  of 
manhood,  his  pursuits  were  always  scholarly 
and  refined.  His  versatility  was  early  a  marked 
characteristic,  and  he  seemed  to  turn  his  mind  to 
a  great  variety  of  diverse  occupations  with  equal 
success  and  facility.  His  "  Autobiography " 
bears  on  every  page  the  impress  of  an  original, 
if  not  a  profound,  mind.  Domestic  in  his  habits 
and  devoted  to  his  children,  he  turned  from  the 


WILLIAM  II.  REWARD  125 

cares  and  anxieties  of  a  statesman's  career  to  im 
press  upon  his  boys  lessons  of  morality,  good 
breeding,  and  patriotism,  which  are  among  the 
choicest  treasures  of  his  long  and  useful  life. 
For  example,  to  one  of  his  little  boys,  when  he 
was  away  from  home,  he  wrote  this  charming 
letter : 

"Mv  DEAR  BOY:  I  have  written  a  letter  to 
Augustus,  and  I  write  one  now  to  you.  I  write 
it  with  red  ink  so  that  you  may  know  them 
apart.  The  people  where  I  am  staying  are  very 
nice  people,  but  there  is  a  boy  here  that  does 
one  very  naughty  thing.  I  saw  yesterday  on 
the  mantel-piece  a  saucer  filled  with  the  shells 
of  birds'  eggs.  Now,  it  is  wicked  to  take  away 
their  eggs  from  the  pretty  little  birds.  It  is  dif 
ferent  altogether  from  taking  the  old  hen's  eggs 
away  from  her.  Hen's  eggs  are  good  to  eat  and 
it  is  right  to  take  them.  The  hen  does  not  know 
how  many  eggs  she  has,  and  therefore  she  does 
not  feel  sorry  when  you  take  them  all  away  but 
one,  and  she  is  such  an  ignorant  old  creature  that 
she  wouldn't  know  it  if  you  should  take  away  her 
last  egg  and  put  a  paper  one  in  its  place.  But 
the  little  birds'  eggs  are  not  good  to  eat ;  they 
know  how  many  eggs  they  have,  and  they  are 
very  sorry  and  mourn  many  days  if  you  take 
them  away.  This  same  naughty  boy  got  up 
yesterday  morning,  took  his  gun,  and  shot  a  very 
pretty  little  yellow-bird.  He  brought  it  into  the 
house,  laid  it  on  the  table,  and  it  lay  there  all  the 
morning.  At  noon  he  threw  it  away.  Now,  do 
you  think  the  little  boy  was  any  happier  because 


120  STATESMEN 

he  had  killed  that  harmless  little  yellow-bird? 
Perhaps  the  bird  has  left  little  ones  in  her  nest, 
and  they  too  must  have  died  before  this  time." 

Seward's  entrance  into  public  life  was  early. 
When  he  was  less  than  twenty-three  years  old 
he  embarked  in  the  political  contest  then  raging, 
as  an  advocate  of  the  election  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  and  he  drew  up  a  very  strong,  striking, 
and  pungent  address,  in  which  he  arraigned  the 
"  Albany  Regency  "  and  denounced  the  methods 
of  Martin  Van  Buren's  supporters.  The  Albany 
Regency  was  composed  of  leading  politicians  of 
the  Jackson  stripe,  who  held  the  political  for 
tunes  of  the  State  of  New  York  as  in  a  grasp  of 
iron.  It  was  against  this  Regency  that  Seward 
was  to  be  pitted,  later  on.  His  election  to  the 
State  Senate  was  a  great  victory.  The  Whig 
party,  which  had  originated  in  opposition  to  the 
Jackson  administration  and  the  Albany  Regency, 
nominated  Seward  for  Governor  in  1834.  He 
was  defeated  by  William  L.  Marcy,  who  had  a 
fair  majority.  At  this  time  he  was  thirty-three 
years  of  age,  and  it  is  a  curious  illustration  of 
the  narrowness  of  the  political  prejudices  of  the 
time,  that  he  was  assailed  by  his  opponents  for 
his  extreme  youth  and  his  red  hair.  Mr.  Seward's 
hair  was  a  warm  auburn  in  tint.  In  his  "  Auto 
biography  "  he  has  narrated  an  amusing  incident 
which  occurred  when  he  was  at  Long  Branch, 
N.  J.,  the  year  after  his  defeat.  A  benevolent- 
looking  old  gentleman  said  :  "  Excuse  me,  sir,  if  I 
ask  you  an  obtrusive  question,  but  I  see  by  the 
papers  that  there  was  a  candidate  for  Governor 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD  127 

in  your  State  last  fall — the  one  who  was  defeated— 
whose  name  was  the  same  as  yours.  Pray,  was 
he  any  relative  of  your  family?"  Mr.  Seward 
had  to  admit  that  he  was  a  near  relative. 

"  Not  your  father,  was  it,  sir?  " 

"  No,  not  my  father." 

A  pause  ensued,  and  then,  overcome  by  curi 
osity,  the  old  gentleman  returned  to  the  attack : 

"  Could  it  have  been  a  brother  of  yours  ?  " 


Mr.  Seward  in  Early  Life. 

"  Well,  Mr.  T.,"  said  Seward,  "  I  may  as  well 
confess  to  you  that  I  am  myself  that  unfortunate 
man." 

"  Dear  me,"  said  the  other,  with  unaffected 
surprise  and  sympathy,  "  I  never  should  have 
thought  it,  and  so  young,  too ;  I  am  very  sorry. 
How  near  did  you  come  to  being  elected?  " 

"  Not  very  near.  I  only  got  a  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  thousand  votes." 

"  A  hundred  and  sixty-nine  thousand  votes  and 


128  STATESMEN 

not  elected,"  was  the  astonished  reply.  "  Why, 
that  is  more  than  all  the  candidates  together  ever 
get  in  New  Jersey.  A  hundred  and—  —good 
heavens,  sir,  how  many  votes  does  it  take  to 
elect  a  man  in  New  York?" 

The  redness  of  Mr.  Seward's  hair  was  taken 
up  and  commented  upon  by  some  of  his  news 
paper  friends,  who  set  forth  in  a  most  elaborate 
way  that  Esau,  Cato,  Clovis,  William  Rufus,  and 
others  of  a  lofty  race  of  red-haired  heroes,  re 
sembled  Seward  in  this  highly  important  re 
spect  ;  while  others  showed  how  many  of  the 
greatest  names  in  history  were  achieved  in 
youth.  In  those  days  of  ferment  parties  rose 
and  fell  on  what  would  now  be  considered  very 
slight  issues. 

Perhaps  the  most  momentous  crisis  in  the  po 
litical  history  of  New  York  was  that  brought  on 
by  the  Anti-Masonic  movement  in  1828-9.  In 
September,  1826,  William  Morgan,  an  inhabitant 
of  Batavia,  in  the  county  of  Genesee,  was  ar 
rested  on  the  charge  of  petty  larceny  and  was 
conveyed  to  the  common  jail  in  the  county  of 
Ontario,  Canandaigua.  He  was  taken  from  jail 
by  citizens  of  Canandaigua,  put  in  a  closed  car 
riage  and  clandestinely  driven  to  Lockport,  and 
thence  to  Fort  Niagara,  on  the  banks  of  the  Ni 
agara  River.  There  for  a  time  all  trace  of  him 
disappeared.  The  story  goes  that  he  was  taken 
from  Fort  Niagara  and  in  some  way  summarily 
put  to  death.  The  explanation  of  this  curious 
transaction  was  that  he  was  a  Freemason  who 
had  conceived  the  notion  of  making  public  the 


WILLIAM  II.  SEWARD  129 

secrets  of  the  order  ;  that  he  had  prepared  a  book 
which  was  then  in  type  in  a  printing-office  in 
Batavia,  and  was  about  to  be  published.  The 
printing-office  was  forcibly  attacked  and  burned 
down  in  the  night  to  destroy  the  partly  prepared 
book,  and  it  was  charged  that  this  outrage  and 
the  supposed  murder  of  Morgan  were  the  work 
of  the  Freemasons.  An  intense  excitement  broke 
out  in  the  counties  west  of  Cayuga  Lake,  and  in 
due  time  spread  throughout  the  State,  and  even 
into  other  portions  of  the  Northern  States.  The 
presidential  election  of  1828  was  coming  on 
and  the  Anti-Masonic  party  grew  to  be  an  im 
portant  political  factor.  It  was  during  this  tre 
mendous  Anti-Masonic  excitement  that  a  political 
phrase,  since  well  known,  came  into  use.  A  body, 
said  to  be  that  of  William  Morgan,  had  been 
found  in  the  Niagara  River.  It  was  never  thor 
oughly  identified,  but  Thurlow  Weed,  Mr.  Sew- 
ard's  closest  political  friend  and  ally,  was  said  to 
have  declared  that  "it  was  a  good-enough  Mor 
gan  until  after  election." 

•  Curiously  enough,  the  Anti- Masonic  excite 
ment  assumed  proportions  big  enough  to  carry  it 
into  a  national  canvass,  and  in  1831  Mr.  Seward, 
visiting  Massachusetts,  thought  it  worth  while  to 
have  an  interview  with  John  Quincy  Adams  on 
the  subject  of  re-entering  public  life  as  the  na 
tional  candidate  of  the  Anti-Masons.  Mr.  Sew 
ard  describes  John  Quincy  Adams  as  "a  short, 
rather  corpulent  man,  of  sixty  and  upward.  He 
was  bald  ;  his  countenance  was  staid,  sober  al 
most  to  gloom  or  sorrow,  and  hardly  gave  an  in- 
9 


130  STATESMEN 

dication  of  his  superiority  over  other  men.  His 
eyes  were  weak  and  inflamed.  He  was  dressed 
in  an  olive  frock-coat,  and  cravat  carelessly  tied, 
and  an  old-fashioned  light-colored  vest  and  panta 
loons.  It  was  obvious  that  he  was  a  student  just 
called  from  the  labors  of  his  closet."  To  this  mi 
nute  description,  which  indicates  Seward's  ha 
bit  of  close  observation,  is  added  this  comment : 
"  As  I  left  the  house,  I  thought  I  could  plainly 
answer  how  it  happened  that  he,  the  best  Presi- 


Mr.  Seward's  Home  at  Auburn,  N.  Y. 

dent  since  Washington,  entered  and  left  the  office 
with  so  few  devoted  personal  friends."  Years 
afterward,  Seward  wrote  a  biography  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  which  to-day  stands  among  the 
very  best  personal  histories  ever  written  by  an 
American. 

As  I  have  said,  Seward  early  imbibed  ideas 
hostile  to  slavery,  and  he  took  an  active  part  in 
forming  those  advance  columns  of  the  friends  of 
human  liberty  which  finally  swept  the  Northern 
States.  He  was  a  second  time  a  candidate  for 


WILLIAM  II.  SEWARD  131 

Governor  of  New  York,  in  1838,  and  was  elected 
over  Marcy  by  a  handsome  majority.  During 
his  candidacy  he  was  again  assailed  for  the  red 
ness  of  his  hair  and  his  extreme  youth,  and  it 
was  in  vain  pleaded  that  he  was  four  years  older 
than  when  he  had  before  been  a  candidate.  An 
other  charge  against  him  was  in  reference  to 
transactions  with  the  Holland  Land  Company 
and  their  tenants,  who  were  in  possession  of  cer 
tain  wild  lands  in  Chautauqua  County ;  but  a 
more  important  issue  in  the  campaign  was  raised 
by  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  which  propounded 
to  the  candidates  in  nomination  three  questions : 
First.  In  regard  to  granting  fugitive  slaves  trial 
by  jury.  Second.  In  regard  to  abolishing  dis 
tinctions  and  constitutional  rights  founded  solely 
on  complexion.  Third.  In  regard  to  the  repeal 
of  the  law  which  authorized  the  importation  of 
slaves  into  New  York  and  their  detention  as  such 
during  a  period  of  nine  months.  In  a  calm 
reply,  Seward,  while  avowing  his  firm  faith  in 
trial  by  jury,  and  saying  that  the  more  humble 
the  individual  the  stronger  is  his  claim  to  its 
protection,  and  declaring  his  opposition  in  clear 
and  definite  terms  to  all  human  bondage,  refused 
to  make  any  ante-election  pledges  as  to  his  ac 
tion  upon  specific  measures.  He  declared  that 
these  must  actually  come  before  him  for  his  de 
cision.  The  greater  part  of  the  followers  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  leaders  were  satisfied  with  these 
answers,  although  the  leaders  themselves  were 
not. 

Seward's  election  was  hailed  with  the  wildest 


132  STATESMEN 

enthusiasm  by  the  New  York  Whigs,  and  his 
inauguration  and  administration  were  regarded 
as  matters  of  the  highest  political  importance. 
During  his  administration  of  the  governorship 
a  controversy  arose  between  him  and  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia  regarding  the  return  of  three 
sailors  who  were  charged  with  the  crime  of  aid 
ing  a  slave,  who  secreted  himself  on  board  their 
vessel,  to  escape  from  bondage.  Governor 
Seward  took  high  ground  in  his  reply.  The 
la\vs  of  the  State  of  New  York,  he  said,  did  not 
recognize  property  in  man,  and  to  aid  a  person 
therefore  to  escape  from  slavery  Avas  not  a 
crime.  His  exposition  of  natural  law  and  of  the 
law  of  slavery  was  masterly  and  unanswerable, 
and  in  the  long  controversy  that  followed,  Vir 
ginia  was  finally  driven  to  the  extreme  of  threat 
ening  to  dissolve  the  Union.  The  Virginia 
Governor  appealed  to  other  States,  and  finally 
in  great  wrath  resigned  his  office.  The  Virginia 
legislature  passed  an  act  requiring  that  all  New 
York  vessels  in  ports  of  Virginia  should  be 
searched  before  they  were  permitted  to  sail,  for 
slaves  that  might  be  secreted  on  board.  A  sim 
ilar  controversy  arose  between  New  York  and 
Georgia  during  Governor  Seward's  administra 
tion,  with  a  similar  result.  In  all  these  cases 
Governor  Seward  maintained  an  attitude  of 
calm,  courteous,  but  immovable  opposition  to 
the  claims  of  slavery.  This  position  he  steadily 
maintained  through  all  his  public  career.  While 
he  was  Governor  he  proposed  to  extend  the 
right  of  suffrage  to  the  negroes  of  New  York, 


WILLIAM  It.  SKWA1W 


133 


slavery  having-  in  the  meantime  been  abolished, 
and  this  with  other  public  utterances  placed  him 


among  the  foremost  opponents  of 
slavery  within  the  Whig  party. 

As  Governor  of  New  York,  Sew- 
ard  advocated  and  carried  through  a  just  and  lib 
eral  policy.     During  his  administration  imprison- 


134  STATESMEN 

ment  for  debt  was  abolished,  the  cause  of  general 
education  was  advanced,  internal  improvements 
were  made,  and  foreign  immigration  fostered. 

Elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1849, 
he  early  took  occasion  to  declare  his  sentiments 
on  the  then  dominant  topic — slavery.  In  a 
speech  on  March  11,  1850,  the  admission  of  Cali 
fornia  being  under  consideration,  he  said  that 
there  was  "  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution 
which  regulated  the  authority  of  Congress  over 
the  national  domain — the  law  of  God  and  the  in 
terests  of  humanity."  This  phrase  was  denounced 
by  the  defenders  of  slavery  as  treasonable.  Eight 
years  later,  in  a  speech  delivered  at  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  he  referred  to  the  "  irrepressible  conflict" 
then  going  on,  which  could  only  end  in  the 
United  States  becoming  either  entirely  a  slave- 
holding  or  non-slaveholding  nation.  These  two 
phrases  clung  to  Seward  all  through  his  public 
career,  and  will  long  be  associated  with  his  name. 
Seward's  habit  of  mind,  however,  was  not  com 
bative,  and,  with  his  habitually  gentle  disposi 
tion,  he  avoided  all  unnecessary  controversy. 
Even  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State  in  Lin 
coln's  administration,  his  habit  of  looking  on  the 
bright  side  of  things  was  thought  by  many  to  be 
one  of  the  causes  of  the  slowness  with  which  the 
war  was  prosecuted.  He  believed  that  Provi 
dence  would  deal  with  slavery  as  it  dealt  with 
other  things,  which  came  to  an  end  in  the  course 
of  time  without  confusion  and  without  violence ; 
and  he  persuaded  himself  that  the  war,  when  it 
did  come,  was  nothing  more  than  a  temporary 


WILLIAM  R.  REWARD  135 

disturbance.  It  was  even  said  of  him,  and  not 
denied,  that  he  was  in  favor,  as  Secretary  of 
State,  of  diverting  the  nation  from  the  great  is 
sue  before  it  by  provoking  a  foreign  war;  but 
there  never  was  any  question  as  to  Seward's  lof 
ty  patriotism,  and  his  sincere  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  human  freedom  and  the  rights  of  man. 

When  the  Republican  party,  in  1860,  had  ar 
rived  at  a  point  where  there  was  a  possibility 
that  it  might  triumph  on  account  of  the  divisions 
in  the  Democratic  party,  Seward  was  the  most 
prominent  candidate  for  the  Presidential  nom 
ination.  The  convention  met  in  Chicago  amidst 
the  greatest  excitement.  By  many  the  nomina 
tion  of  Seward  was  thought  a  foregone  conclu 
sion.  He  was  the  leading  Republican  of  the 
Eastern  States,  well  known  for  his  learning,  emi 
nent  legal  ability,  and,  above  all,  for  the  pure 
and  honest  administration  of  his  high  office  as 
Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York.  No  other 
name  but  his  so  evoked  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
masses  of  the  people  of  the  States  east  of  the 
great  lakes,  and  intense  was  the  surprise  of  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  persons  when  the  compar 
atively  unknown  prairie  lawyer  and  rail-splitter, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  was  nominated  in  place  of  the 
statesman,  William  H.  Seward. 

Looking  back  upon  these  stirring  historic 
events,  it  now  seems  as  though  an  overruling 
Providence  had  so  contrived  matters,  apparently 
in  the  hands  of  men,  that  another  man,  trained 
in  a  rougher  and  harder  school  than  Seward, 
should  be  elected  to  furnish  the  excuse  for  the 


136  STATESMEN 

Southern  revolt  and  lead  the  nation  through  fire 
and  blood  to  human  freedom. 

By  a  curious  combination  of  circumstances, 
some  of  the  most  conspicuous  rivals  of  Lincoln 
in  the  race  for  the.  Presidential  nomination  were 
taken  into  his  cabinet.  Edward  Bates,  of  Mis 
souri,  who  was  one  of  these,  was  made  Attorney- 
General,  and  William  H.  Seward,  by  common 
consent,  was  regarded  as  the  only  person  to 
whom  to  entrust  the  portfolio  of  the  Secretary 
of  State.  It  is  very  likely  that  Seward,  with  his 
long  training,  his  charming  habit  of  self-compla 
cency,  and  his  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  re 
garded  himself  as  likely  to  be  the  real  interior 
spirit  of  the  Lincoln  administration.  With  this 
view  he  outlined  a  presidential  inaugural  ad 
dress  and  defined  a  policy  for  the  new  adminis 
tration  to  follow.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say 
that  Lincoln  was  the  absolute  President  and  mas 
ter  of  the  situation,  and  that  Seward,  who  was 
wise  and  shrewd,  very  soon  learned  to  take  the 
measure  of  the  new  man  from  the  West  and  to 
accept  his  own  position,  the  duties  of  which  he 
discharged  with  wonderful  ability,  and  with  a 
certain  graciousness  of  manner  that  has  never 
been  excelled  by  any  statesman  in  that  place. 

His  conduct  of  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  Re 
public  during  the  trying  times  of  the  civil  war 
was  in  every  respect  masterly,  patriotic,  and  cal 
culated  to  win,  as  it  did,  the  respect  and  admira 
tion  of  the  civilized  world.  The  affair  of  the 
Trent  was  one  of  the  incidents  of  his  adminis 
tration  which  at  one  time  threatened  to  draw  us 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWARt)  137 

into  war  with  England,  while  we  were  yet  en 
deavoring  to  put  down  a  gigantic  rebellion  at 
home.  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States 
ship  San  Jacinto,  had  taken  from  the  British  pas 
senger  steamer  Trent  two  rebel  commissioners 
on  their  way  to  England — Messrs.  Mason  and 
Slidell.  Their  return  was  demanded  by  the  Brit 
ish  Government,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as 
though  the  United  States  Government  must 
either  submit  to  a  gross  humiliation  in  surren 
der  or  go  to  war,  either  of  which  was  to  be  pro 
foundly  deplored.  Secretary  Seward,  by  refer 
ring  this  question  to  an  unsettled  and  vexatious 
dispute  with  England,  which  had  been  raised 
during  the  war  of  1812,  contrived  to  extricate 
the  United  States  Government  from  a  most 
baffling  dilemma,  and  to  save  at  once  the  honor 
and  the  credit  of  the  nation.  The  rebel  commis 
sioners  were  restored  to  the  British  flag. 

As  a  lawyer,  Seward  distinguished  himself  by 
befriending  the  poor  and  needy,  the  friendless 
and  the  stranger.  His  chivalrous  love  of  fair 
play  was  aroused  whenever  he  heard  the  cry  of 
the  enslaved  or  the  oppressed.  He  defended 
persons  who  were  accused  of  having  aided  in  the 
escape  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  in  many  ways  man 
ifested  his  sympathy  with  those  who  were  in 
distress  and  apparently  under  the  ban  of  the  law. 
Here  are  two  or  three  extracts  from  his  occa 
sional  addresses  that  may  be  taken  as  his  points 
of  doctrine: 

"  If  all  the  internal  improvements  required  to 
cross  this  State  were  to  be  made  at  once,  the 


138  STATESMEN 

debt  which  would  be  created  would  not  impair 
the  public  credit  or  retard  the  public  prosperity 
a  single  year.  The  expenses  of  a  single  year  of 
war  would  exceed  the  whole  sum  of  such  cost." 

"  Wealth  and  prosperity  have  always  served 
as  the  guides  which  introduced  vice,  luxury,  and 
corruption  into  republics ;  and  luxury,  vice,  and 
corruption  have  subverted  every  republic  which 
has  preceded  us  that  had  force  enough  in  its  in- 
corrupted  state  to  resist  foreign  invasion." 

"  The  perpetuity  of  this  Union  is,  and  ought  to 
be,  the  object  of  the  most  persevering  and  watch 
ful  solicitude  on  the  part  of  every  American 
citizen." 

In  1865,  when  President  Lincoln  was  assas 
sinated  in  the  city  of  Washington,  the  band  of  con 
spirators  who  had  planned  the  murder  of  the  Pres 
ident  had  also  included  Seward  and  some  other 
members  of  the  cabinet  in  their  deadly  scheme. 
One  of  the  assassins,  swiftly  and  unexpectedly 
gaining  entrance  at  the  street  door,  mounted  to 
the  chamber  where  Seward  was  lying  ill  in  his 
bed.  The  conspirator,  armed  with  a  knife,  threw 
himself  upon  the  sick  man  and  stabbed  him 
in  several  places,  but  was  prevented  from  instant 
ly  killing  him  by  the  attendant,  a  male  nurse. 
While  the  attendant  and  the  assassin  were  strug 
gling  together,  Seward  craftily  rolled  himself 
over  and  fell  between  the  bed  and  the  wall,  and 
before  the  wretch  could  go  further,  help  came 
and  Seward's  life  was  saved.  For  days  he  lin 
gered  between  living  and  dying,  his  face  so 
gashed  with  the  assassin's  knife  that  it  was  with 


WILLIAM  II.   REWARD 


139 


The  Seward  Statue,  by  Randolph  Rogers,  in  Madison  Square,  New  York. 

difficulty  that  he  could  be  fed.  After  many 
days  of  pain  and  confinement  he  was  permitted 
to  be  bolstered  up  in  bed  and  look  out  upon  the 
summer  sky.  Fearing  the  effect  that  the  news 
would  have  upon  the  enfeebled  invalid,  Seward 
had  not  been  told  of  the  details  of  the  conspiracy 
nor  of  the  death  of  Lincoln ;  but  as  his  eyes 
sought  out  the  familiar  objects  from  the  window 


140  STATESMEN 

of  his  sick-room,  he  saw  the  flag  on  the  White 
House  at  half-mast.  Instantly  divining  all  that 
had  happened,  he  said :  "  The  President  is  dead," 
and  relapsed  into  silence,  while  the  tears  coursed 
down  his  scarred  and  wounded  face. 

During  Johnson's  administration  Seward  was 

O 

able  to  resume  his  place  in  the  State  Department, 
and,  greatly  to  the  disappointment  of  some  of 
his  friends,  he  supported  the  policy  of  the  Presi 
dent,  which  was  somewhat  at  variance  with  that 
of  Lincoln.  Many  of  his  friends  fell  away  from 
him,  and  he  doubtless  endured  in  silence  and  in 
sorrow  the  obloquy  to  which  he  was  exposed  by 
reason  of  his  willingness  to  administer  the  affairs 
of  the  State  Department  during  the  administra 
tion  of  a  man  whose  policy  was  highly  objection 
able  to  the  party  that  had  elected  Lincoln,  and  to 
which  Seward  had  so  long  been  faithful. 

An  important  incident  of  Seward's  service  in 
the  State  Department  during  Andrew  Johnson's 
administration  Avas  the  purchase  of  Alaska  from 
Russia  by  the  United  States  Government,  a  trans 
action  which  Seward  conducted  with  great  skill 
and  diplomatic  ability.  His  name  should  be  for 
ever  associated  with  that  surprising  state  stroke. 

On  his  retirement  from  the  State  Department 
Seward  undertook  a  journey  around  the  world, 
accompanied  by  members  of  his  family.  It  was 
a  unique  and  wonderful  journey,  occupying 
more  than  a  year.  Everywhere  the  aged  states 
man  was  received  with  the  most  impressive 
demonstrations  of  respect  and  veneration.  In 
foreign  lands,  where  one  would  scarcely  expect 


WILLIAM  II.  REWARD  141 

the  name  of  an  American  to  have  penetrated,  he 
was  greeted  with  a  certain  impressiveness  that 
was  a  wonderful  tribute  to  his  fame  and  to  his 
prominence.  On  his  return  to  Auburn  he  said, 
in  a  little  speech  to  his  neighbors  who  greeted 
him  at  his  own  house :  "  In  the  course  of  my 
wanderings  I  have  seen,  not  all  the  nations,  but 
some  of  the  nations  of  every  race  of  the  earth.  1 
have  looked  the  whole  human  family  in  the  face, 
and  taken  by  the  hand  and  conversed  with  my 
fellow-man  in  his  lowest  degradation  and  in  his 
highest  state  of  civilization.  I  found  no  nation 
so  distant  and  no  race  so  low  that  the  character 
of  an  American  citizen  did  not  secure  to  me,  not 
merely  safety,  but  also  respect,  consideration, 
and  affection."  This  was  in  October,  1871.  In 
October  of  the  next  year  he  died. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  career,  in  1846,  he  de 
fended  and  secured  a  fair  trial  for  a  negro  ac 
cused  of  murder,  one  Freeman.  The  man  was 
a  half-witted  creature,  apparently  incapable  of 
any  appeal  to  his  reason  or  to  his  intelligence, 
and  at  one  time  there  was  every  probability  that 
he  would  be  lynched ;  but  Seward  resolved  to 
give  him  the  benefit  of  all  his  talents  in  order 
that  he  should  be  fairly  tried  by  a  competent 
court  of  justice.  The  man  was  deaf,  deserted, 
ignorant,  and  his  conduct  inexplicable  on  any 
principle  of  sanity.  Referring  to  this  tragical 
incident,  Seward  wrote  of  his  proposed  defence 
of  Freeman:  "This  will  raise  a  storm  of  preju 
dice  and  passion  which  will  try  the  fortitude 
of  my  friends,  but  I  shall  do  my  duty  ;  I  care 


142  STATESMEN 

not  whether  I  am  ever  to  be  forgiven  for  it 
or  not."  Closing  his  argument  on  the  trial, 
Seward  said  :  "In  due  time,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  when  I  shall  have  paid  the  debt  of  nature, 
my  remains  will  rest  here  in  your  midst  with 
those  of  my  kindred  and  neighbors.  It  is  very 
possible  they  may  be  unhonored,  neglected, 
spurned ;  but  perhaps  later,  when  the  passion 
and  excitement  which  now  agitate  this  commu 
nity  shall  have  passed  away,  some  wandering 
stranger,  some  lone  exile,  some  Indian,  some 
negro,  may  erect  over  them  an  humble  stone, 
and  thereon  this  epitaph,  '  He  was  Faithful.' " 
The  passions  and  excitements  which  agitated 
the  community  of  that  time  have  long  since 
passed  away,  and  possibly  even  the  memories  of 
that  remarkable  trial  have  faded  from  the  minds 
of  men  ;  but  where  Seward  rests,  in  the  embow 
ered  shades  of  Auburn,  rises  a  marble  monument 
on  which  is  engraved  the  epitaph  of  his  choice, 
"  He  was  Faithful." 


Salmon  Portland  Chase. 


VI. 

SALMON    P.  CHASE. 

THAT  is  a  long  life  which  covers  the  years  be 
tween  the  first  appearance  of  a  steamboat  on 
Lake  Erie  and  the  end  of  the  Civil  War,  the  im 
peachment  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  the  second 
election  of  General  Grant.  A  boy,  twelve  years 
old,  born  in  Cornish,  N.  H.,  in  1808,  and  des 
tined  to  be  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States 
and  the  great  Finance  Minister  of  his  time,  jour 
neyed  from  New  England  to  that  remote  and  al 
most  unknown  region,  "  The  Ohio,"  in  1820.  He 
was  Salmon  Portland,  son  of  Ithamar  Chase,  of 
a  distinguished  New  England  family.  He  was 
early  left  fatherless,  and  when  a  young  lad  was 
invited  by  his  uncle,  Philander  Chase,  the  Prot 
estant  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Ohio,  to  be  received 
into  his  household  at  Worthington,  O.  Chase, 
in  his  autobiographical  notes,  said :  "  I  tried  to 
find  out  where  I  was  going,  and  got  some  queer 
information.  '  The  Ohio,'  as  the  country  was 
then  called,  was  a  great  way  off.  It  was  very 
fertile.  Cucumbers  grew  on  trees  !  There  were 
wonderful  springs  whose  waters  were  like  New 
England  rum  !  Deer  and  wolves  were  plenty, 
and  people  few."  The  lad  began  his  journey,  in 
charge  of  his  elder  brother  Alexander,  who  was 


144  STATESMEN 

going  West  with  the  intention  of  joining  Gen 
eral  Cass's  expedition  into  the  Indian  country  ; 
and  another  member  of  the  party  was  Henry 
R.  Schoolcraft,  who  afterward  became  distin 
guished  as  a  writer  on  Indian  ethnology,  cus 
toms,  and  traditions. 

The  little  party  at  Black  Rock,  Lake  Erie, 
were  to  take  passage  on  a  novel  craft,  the  steamer 
"  Walk-in-the-Water,"  for  Cleveland.  They  were 
detained  by  reason  of  the  ice  in  the  lake.  It  was 
then  April,  1820,  and  when  they  did  finally  em 
bark,  the  steamer  was  towed  part  way  by  several 
yoke  of  oxen  attached  to  a  tow-line,  walking  on 
the  bank  ;  and  when  they  were  forced  to  leave 
the  shore,  the  steamer  was  helped  in  her  prog 
ress  across  the  open  lake  by  sails  as  well  as  by 
steam.  Nevertheless  this  method  of  navigation 
was  greatly  admired  for  its  speed  and  its  nov 
elty. 

Arriving  at  Cleveland  Alexander  Chase  and 
Schoolcraft  left  the  lad  behind,  where  he  was 
to  wait  for  company  to  take  charge  of  him  to 
Worthington.  During  his  tarry  here  he  amused 
himself  and  earned  a  little  money  by  ferrying  pas 
sengers  across  the  Cuyahoga.  On  this  incident 
was  founded  a  pleasing  tale  written  for  boys  by 
J.  T.  Trowbridge,  and  entitled  "  The  Ferry-Boy 
and  the  Financier."  Chase's  brief  experience  on 
the  Cuyahoga  would  hardly  warrant  any  person 
in  giving  him  the  title  of  a  ferry-boy,  as  his 
doings  in  that  line  were  very  limited.  But  we 
may  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Trowbridge,  the  writer 
of  the  book,  for  his  laudable  endeavor,  because 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  145 

having  written  to  Chase,  in  1863  and  1864,  for 
information  on  which  to  build  his  entertaining 
story,  he  was  favored  with  many  letters  from  the 
great  man,  in  which  may  be  found  some  autobio 
graphical  notes  of  great  value,  which  probably 
otherwise  would  never  have  been  written. 

The  lad  was  finally  taken  into  the  charge  of 
two  young  men  who  were  going  to  Worthing- 
ton,  and  they  went  forward  in  company.  "  The 
settlement  of  the  country,"  wrote  Mr.  Chase,  in 
later  years,  "  was  only  begun.  Great  forests 
stretched  across  the  State.  Carriage-ways  were 
hardly  practicable.  Almost  all  travelling  was 
performed  on  foot  or  on  horseback.  The  two 
young  men  had  two  horses,  and  the  arrangement 
was  that  we  were  to  ride  and  tie,  that  is  to  say, 
one  was  to  ride  ahead  some  distance,  then  dis 
mount  and  tie  his  horse,  and  walk  forward.  The 
person  on  foot  was  to  come  up,  take  the  horse, 
ride  on  beyond  the  walker  in  front,  then  tie,  and 
so  on.  We  passed  through  Wooster,  staying 
there  overnight.  This  place  seemed  to  me  to 
be  a  great  one,  and  the  lighted  houses,  as  we 
went  in  after  dark,  were  very  splendid.  In  three 
or  four  days  we  reached  Worthington.  I  entered 
the  town  walking,  and  met  my  uncle  in  the  street 
with  two  or  three  of  his  clergy  or  friends." 

The  young  lad,  now  domesticated  with  his 
uncle,  the  Bishop  of  Ohio,  was  expected  to  pur 
sue  his  studies,  already  well  begun,  and  to  "  do 
chores."  He  was  proficient  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
and  "  Rollin's  Ancient  History  "  was  read  and 
reread  by  him,  as  many  modern  boys  might  read 
10 


146  STATESMEN 

a  cheap  novel.  UA  ludicrous  incident  of  his 
Worthington  life,"  says  one  of  his  biographers, 
J.  W.  Shuckers,  "  fastened  itself  strongly  in  his 
memory.  One  morning  the  bishop  and  all  the 
older  members  of  the  family  went  away,  leaving 
the  boy  at  home,  with  directions  to  kill  and  dress 
a  pig  for  the  next  day's  dinner."  "  I  had  no 


The  House  in  which  Mr.  Chase  was  Born,  at  Cornish,  N.  H. 

great  difficulty,"  said  Mr.  Chase,  "  in  catching 
and  slaughtering  a  fat  young  porker.  A  tub  of 
hot  water  was  in  readiness  for  plunging  him  in 
preparatory  to  taking  off  his  bristles.  Unfortu 
nately,  however,  the  water  was  too  hot,  or  per 
haps  when  I  soused  the  pig  into  it  I  kept  him 
there  too  long.  At  any  rate,  when  I  undertook 
to  remove  the  bristles,  expecting  that  they  would 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  147 

come  off  almost  of  themselves,  I  found  to  my  dis 
may  that  I  could  not  stir  one  of  them.  In  pig- 
killing  phrase,  the  bristles  were  '  set.'  I  pulled 
and  pulled  in  vain.  What  was  I  to  do  ?  The 
pig  must  be  dressed.  About  that  there  must  be 
no  failure.  I  thought  of  my  cousin's  razors,  a 
nice  new  pair,  just  suited  to  the  use  of  a  spruce 
young  clergyman  as  he  was.  No  sooner  thought 
of  than  done.  I  got  the  razors  and  shaved  the 
pig  from  tail  to  snout.  I  think  the  shaving  was 
a  success.  The  razors  were  damaged  by  the 
operation,  however,  but  they  were  carefully 
cleaned  and  restored  to  their  place.  My  im 
pression  is  that,  on  the  whole,  the  killing  was 
not  satisfactory  to  the  bishop,  and  that  my  cousin 
did  not  find  his  razors  exactly  in  condition  for 
use  the  next  morning.  But  the  operation  had 
its  moral,  and  showed  that  where  there  is  a  will 
there  is  a  way."  This  humble  and  grotesque 
experience  in  young  Chase's  life  may  very  fairly 
be  taken  as  an  indication  of  the  stuff  that  was  in 
him.  His  will  was  indomitable,  and  whatever 
he  set  out  to  do,  from  that  day  until  the  day  he 
laid  down  his  life,  was  done. 

Those  were  hard  times  in  "  The  Ohio." 
"  Prices  of  all  provisions  were  low.  Corn  was 
ten  and  even  six  cents  a  bushel,  the  purchaser 
himself  gathering  it  in  the  field.  Twenty-five 
cents  would  buy  a  bushel  of  wheat,  good  and  in 
good  order.  There  were  no  good  roads,  no  ac 
cessible  markets,  no  revenue,  and  salaries  were 
small.  I  have  heard  the  bishop  say  that  his  whole 
money  income  as  bishop  did  not  pay  his  postage 


148  STATESMEN 

bills.  It  took  a  bushel  of  wheat  to  pay  for  the 
conveyance  of  a  letter  over  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles."  So  when  the  good  bishop  was  of 
fered  the  presidency  of  Cincinnati  College,  in 
1822,  he  accepted  the  place  as  offering  a  means 
of  deliverance  from  his  hard  and  unprofitable 
post  at  the  head  of  the  diocese. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  entered  the  college  as  a 
freshman,  but  by  extra  study  was  very  soon  pro 
moted  to  the  sophomore  class,  in  which  he  distin 
guished  himself  by  his  industry  and  application. 
His  first  public  exercise  was  a  year  earlier,  when 
he  delivered  an  original  Greek  oration.  "  My 
subject,"  he  says,  "  was  Paul  and  John  compared, 
Paul  being  the  principal  figure.  What  trouble 
I  had  to  turn  my  English  thoughts  into  Greek 
forms!  The  subject  helped  me,  however,  for  it 
allowed  me  to  take  sentences  from  the  Testa 
ment  and  thus  abridge  my  labors  !  "  The  orator 
was  highly  successful,  generously  applauded, 
and  received  the  commendation  of  his  uncle,  the 
bishop. 

While  sophomore  in  Cincinnati  College  a  mis 
chievous  student  set  fire  to  one  of  the  desks. 
Great  was  the  consternation,  and  when  the  fire 
had  been  put  out  the  tutor  began,  with  the  stu 
dents  ranged  in  the  class,  with, "  Sophomore , 

did  you  set  fire  to  the  desk  ?"  "  No,  sir."  "Do  you 
know  who  did?"  "  No,  sir."  He  reached  the  cul 
prit.  "  Did  you  set  fire  to  the  desk?"  Nothing 
abashed,  his  answer  was,  "  No,  sir."  "  Do  you 
know  who  did  ?  "  "  No,  sir."  Says  Chase  :  "  I 
saw  I  had  to  pass  the  ordeal,  and  determined  to 


*'   Of  Tl 


150  STATESMEN 

tell  the  truth,  but  not  to  give  the  name  of  my 
classmate,  which  I  thought  would  be  about  as 
mean  as  to  tell  a  lie  would  be  wrong.  The 
question  came.  *  Sophomore  Chase,  did  you  set 
fire  to  the  desk  ? '  '  No,  sir.'  '  Do  you  know 
who  did?'  'Yes,  sir.'  '  Who  was  it  ?  '  '  I  shall  not 
tell  you,  sir.'  He  said  no  more.  The  case  went 
before  the  faculty,  and  I  heard  was  the  subject 
of  some  discussion,  but  it  was  not  thought  worth 
while  to  prosecute  the  inquiry." 

The  hard  times  grew  harder,  and  even  the 
college  was  obliged  finally  to  suspend  opera 
tions  for  the  time,  and  Bishop  Chase  went  to 
England  to  raise  means  to  establish  a  theologi 
cal  school.  Young  Chase  returned  to  New 
England,  where  his  loving  and  zealous  mother 
thought  that  she  could  spare  enough  from  her 
scanty  store,  added  to  whatever  sums  he  might 
earn  for  himself  meanwhile,  to  carry  him  through 
Dartmouth  College.  "  How  little  I  appreciated 
her  sacrifices,"  he  says,  "  and  it  is  sad  to  think, 
and  tears  fill  my  eyes  as  I  do  think,  how  late 
comes  true  appreciation  of  them.  Alas  !  how 
inadequately,  until  the  beloved  mother  who 
made  them  has  gone  beyond  the  reach  of  its 
manifestation." 

Not  long  after  his  entry  into  Dartmouth 
College  he  met  with  another  characteristic 
event,  and  also  important  as  indicating  the 
ruggedness  of  his  character.  Some  difficulty 
occurred,  in  which  a  friend  of  his,  one  George 
Punchard,  a  warm-hearted  and  generous  fellow, 
was  involved.  Chase  had  nothing  to  do  with 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  151 

the  affair,  but  took  Funchard's  part  cordially, 
because  he  believed  him  to  be  unjustly  cen 
sured.  The  faculty  took  the  matter  in  hand  and 
Punchard  was  suspended.  Chase  waited  upon 
the  President  and  remonstrated,  but  the  Presi 
dent  intimated  that  the  faculty  was  the  proper 
judge  of  that  question,  and  had  decided.  Chase 
said  :  "  Then  I  desire  to  leave  the  college  also, 
for  I  do  not  wish  to  stay  where  a  student  is 
liable  to  such  injustice."  "  Had  I  consulted  my 
mother?"  "No,  but  I  wanted  leave  of  absence 
for  a  few  days  that  I  might  do  so."  "  You  can 
not  have  it,"  said  the  President.  "  Then,  sir," 
said  Chase,  very  respectfully,  "  I  must  go  with 
out  it."  "  He  saw  my  determination,  and  I  think 
really  respected  the  motive  which  prompted  it. 
At  any  rate,  he  at  last  consented  to  the  leave." 
The  young  man's  mother  welcomed  him,  but 
while  she  could  not  approve,  she  did  not  cen 
sure  him  harshly  for  his  course.  Many  years 
afterward  he  said  :  "  I  could  not  help  feeling 
that  I  had  done  right  in  standing  by  my  friend, 
though  I  was  sorry  I  had  been  obliged  to  leave 
college."  He  eventually,  however,  returned  to 
college  and  graduated  with  credit,  though  with 
out  special  distinction. 

Leaving  college  after  graduation,  he  made  his 
way  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  by  slow  and  eco 
nomical  stages,  and  there  boldly  proclaimed, 
through  the  advertising  columns  of  the  National 
Intelligencer,  his  intention  to  open,  in  the  west 
ern  part  of  the  city,  a  select  classical  school, 
the'  special  advantages  of  which  were  set  forth 


152  STATESMEN 

with  some  minuteness,  and  the  number  of  his 
pupils  was  discreetly  limited  to  twenty ;  be 
yond  that  he  could  not  go.  He  waited  patiently 
and  hopefully  for  the  coming  of  the  twenty  pu 
pils.  One  only  was  brought  forward  to  regis 
ter  his  name — Columbus  Bonfils  ;  but,  alas  !  Co 
lumbus  Bonfils  was  the  first  and  last  pupil ;  the 
other  nineteen  never  made  their  appearance. 
Like  many  another  young  fellow  cast  adrift 
in  Washington,  he  bethought  him  of  obtaining 
a  government  clerkship.  His  uncle,  Dudley 
Chase,  was  a  Senator  from  Vermont  and  an 
influential  friend  and  supporter  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  then  President.  Young  Chase  accord 
ingly  waited  upon  the  great  man  at  his  lodg 
ings,  told  the  story  of  his  unsuccessful  efforts, 
and  besought  his  aid  in  securing  a  clerkship. 
The  Senator  replied  :  "  I  once  procured  an  of 
fice  for  a  nephew  of  mine  and  he  was  ruined  by 
it.  I  then  determined  I  never  would  ask  for 
another.  I  will  lend  you  fifty  cents  with  which 
to  buy  a  spade,  but  I  cannot  help  you  to  a  clerk 
ship."  But  Providence  raised  up  friends  for  the 
plucky  young  man,  and  having  relinquished  his 
class  of  one,  he  was  invited  to  take  charge  of 
the  boys'  department  of  "  Mr.  Plumley's  Select 
Classical  Seminary."  This  institution  contained 
eighteen  or  twenty  scholars,  among  whom  was 
Salmon  P.  Chase's  class  of  one,  Columbus  Bon 
fils.  Among  other  of  the  pupils  of  this  academy 
were  sons  of  Henry  Clay  and  William  Wirt,  the 
latter  then  Attorney-General. 

In   September,   1827,  Chase,   steadily  keeping 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  153 

in  view  his  intention  to  study  the  law,  entered 
the  office  of  Attorney-General  Wirt,  then  in  the 
splendid  maturity  of  his  powers,  and  began  his 
labors  as  a  student.  But  while  he  was  zealously 
and  laboriously  making  his  way  in  the  world 
against  obstacles  about  which  young  men  of 
the  present  day  can  know  very  little,  he  did  not 
forget  his  principles  as  a  friend  of  human  free 
dom.  These  had  early  been  instilled  into  his 
very  being  by  his  devoted  mother  and  his  uncle, 
the  bishop.  In  1828  we  find  his  name  attached 
to  a  petition  to  Congress  praying  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia ;  and  there  probably  was  no 
opportunity  offered  him  to  express  his  opinions 
on  the  great  subject  of  human  liberty,  then  be 
ginning  to  agitate  all  the  people,  that  he  did  not 
readily  embrace.  He  looked  into  the  Capitol 
from  time  to  time  and  listened  to  the  debates  of 
Congress,  which  did  not  impress  him  favorably 
with  the  order  and  dignity  of  legislative  pro 
ceedings  there. 

In  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Trowbridge  he 
says :  "  I  became  slightly  acquainted  with  a  num 
ber  of  prominent  characters,  but  was  too  diffident 
to  push  myself  into  notice,  possibly  too  proud  to 
ask  for  recognition,  and  preferring  to  wait  for 
it ;  too  indifferent,  also  (a  more  serious  fault),  to 
what  transpired  around  me  to  take  much  pains 
to  acquaint  myself  with  the  histories  and  men  of 
the  hour.  I  made  much  too  little  use  of  the  ad 
vantages  which  a  residence  in  Washington  at 
that  period  afforded.  I  was  poor  and  sensitive, 


154  STATESMEN 

a  young  teacher,  needing  myself  to  be  taught 
and  guided."  But  having  been  admitted  to  the 
bar,  Chase  boldly  said  :  "  I  would  rather  be  first 
twenty  years  hence  at  Cincinnati  than  at  Bal 
timore.  As  I  ever  have  been  first  at  school 
and  college,  except  at  Dartmouth,  where  I  was 
much  too  idle,  I  shall  ever  strive  to  be  first 
wherever  I  may  be,  let  what  success  will  attend 
the  effort."  These  were  the  words  of  a  brave 
young  spirit,  resolved  to  turn  again  to  the  raw 
but  promising  life  of  the  West.  To  Cincinnati, 
then,  he  went  in  March,  1830,  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  soon  after,  and  began  a  lawyer's  life. 

He  was  a  prodigious  worker,  and  up  to  his 
latest  days,  which  were  undoubtedly  shortened 
by  his  arduous  and  unceasing  mental  labors,  he 
spared  himself  not  for  a  day,  not  for  an  hour, 
but  devoted  himself  with  unremitting  toil  to  the 
accumulation  of  the  knowledge  that  seemed  to 
him  necessary  in  the  vocation  of  life  immediately 
before  him.  Very  soon  after  his  arrival  in  Cin 
cinnati  he  undertook  and  carried  out  a  work  of 
great  magnitude  and  importance,  a  new  edition 
of  the  statutes  of  Ohio.  The  codification  of  a 
vast  body  of  laws,  dating  from  1788  to  1833,  in 
clusive,  a  period  of  forty-six  years,  was  the  her 
culean  task  which  he  calmly  assumed  and  exe 
cuted  while  yet  scarcely  twenty-two  years  of 
age.  The  book  is  to  this  day  a  work  of  stand 
ard  value. 

Those  were  times  when  fugitive  slaves,  escap 
ing  from  the  soil  of  Kentucky  to  the  free  soil  of 
Ohio,  filled  the  whole  Northwestern  country 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  155 

with  a  vague  feeling-  of  trouble.  Men  were  be 
ginning  to  discuss  the  righteousness  of  human 
slavery  and  question  the  justice  of  returning  to 
bondage  those  who  had  escaped  from  communi 
ties  in  which  slavery  was  recognized  as  a  legal 
and  humane  institution.  In  July,  1836,  there  oc 
curred  in  Cincinnati  an  incident  known  in  his 
tory  as  the  "  Birney  Mob,"  which  undoubtedly 
had  much  to  do  with  coloring  the  political  views 
of  Chase.  James  G.  Birney  was  a  Southern  slave 
holder,  who,  having  emancipated  his  human 
chattels,  went  to  Cincinnati  and  established  an 
anti-slavery  newspaper  called  The  Philanthropist. 
The  sentiment  of  the  city  was  pro-slavery,  and 
the  appearance  of  the  newspaper  so  angered 
the  people  that  the  office  was  mobbed,  the  type 
thrown  into  the  street  and  the  press  into  the 
river.  Chase  viewed  these  lawless  and  outrage 
ous  proceedings  with  deep  indignation,  and  the 
circumstances  of  the  Birney  mob  made  an  im 
pression  upon  his  mind  so  deep  that  he  resolved 
that  he  would  make  a  study  of  the  whole  ques 
tion  with  a  view  to  forming  some  opinion  as  to 
the  proper  method  of  dealing  with  it.  In  one 
of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Trowbridge  he  says  :  "  Since 
1828  I  had  retained  a  profound  sense  of  the 
general  wrong  and  evil  of  slave-holding,  but  I 
thought  the  denunciations  of  slave-holders  by 
abolition  writers  too  sweeping  and  unjust,  and  I 
was  not  prepared  for  any  political  action  against 
slavery." 

Several  other  fugitive  slave  cases  followed  in 
rapid  succession,  some  of  them  being  of  a  most 


156  STATESMEN 

heartrending  and  desperate  character.  One  of 
the  most  noted  of  these  was  the  Van  Zandt 
case,  in  which  an  honest  and  well-meaning  farm 
er  who  had  succored  nine  fugitive  slaves  was 
concerned.  The  fugitives  were  sought  to  be 
wrested  from  the  custody  of  Van  Zandt  by  two 
volunteer  ruffians  who  did  not  pretend  to  have 
any  authority  of  law.  In  the  legal  fracas  which 
followed,  Chase  became  involved  as  counsel 
for  the  defendant,  Van  Zandt.  The  case  went 
from  court  to  court,  and  finally  was  appealed  to 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  where  Chase 
appeared  before  the  tribunal  of  last  resort  asso 
ciated  with  William  H.  Seward.  Chase's  argu 
ment  before  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
has  passed  into  history  as  one  of  the  boldest  and 
most  powerful  pleas  for  human  liberty  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  ever  made  by 
any  lawyer.  Of  Mr.  SewarcTs  assistance  in  this 
matter  Chase  wrote :  "  I  regard  him  as  one  of 
the  very  first  public  men  of  our  country.  Who 
but  himself  would  have  done  what  he  did  for 
the  poor  wretch  Freeman  ?  His  course  in  the 
Van  Zandt  case  has  been  generous  and  noble, 
but  his  action  in  the  Freeman  case,  considering 
his  own  personal  position  and  the  circumstances, 
was  magnanimous  in  the  highest  degree  !  " 

Chase  at  this  time  was  known  as  the  "  Attor 
ney-General  for  negroes  ;  "  but  when  he  had  oc 
casion  to  go  into  the  slave-holding  ground  of 
Kentucky,  across  the  river  from  Cincinnati,  as  he 
often  did,  he  was  invariably  treated  with  marked 
respect  and  cordiality.  Even  the  slave-holders 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  157 

paid  tribute  to  his  inflexible  sense  of  justice  and 
his  dignified  resolution  to  do  what  he  conceived 
to  be  his  whole  duty  by  his  fellow-men. 

The  Liberty  party,  in  1845,  began  to  show  its 
head.  The  call  for  its  first  convention  in  Ohio 
was  written  by  Salmon  P.  Chase  and  bore  his 
signature  among  others.  He  had  generally  been 
identified  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  in 
later  years,  although  his  continuance  with  that 
party  was  neither  intimate  nor  long,  men  were 
accustomed  to  refer  to  him  as  having  been  early 
affiliated  with  the  Democracy.  In  an  address 
made  in  February,  1845,  ne  said  :  "  True  democ 
racy  makes  no  inquiry  about  the  color  of  the 
skin  or  the  place  of  nativity,  or  any  similar  cir 
cumstance  or  condition.  Wherever  it  sees  a  man 
it  recognizes  a  being  endowed  by  his  Creator 
with  original  unalienable  rights.  In  communi- 

O  O 

ties  of  men  it  recognizes  no  distinctions  founded 
on  mere  arbitrary  will.  I  regard,  therefore,  the 
exclusion  of  the  colored  people  as  a  body  from 
the  elective  franchise  as  incompatible  with  true 
democratic  principles."  This  utterance  in  later 
years  returned  to  plague  the  speaker ;  but  to  his 
everlasting  honor  be  it  said,  he  never  for  an  in 
stant  deviated  from  the  fundamental  principle 
here  laid  down. 

Ohio  Democrats  were  earlier  impregnated 
with  the  idea  that  human  slavery  was  wrong 
and  must  pass  away  than  were  their  brethren 
in  some  of  the  Middle  and  Eastern  States.  It 
was  comparatively  easy,  therefore,  in  1849,  to 
form  a  coalition  by  which  Salmon  P.  Chase 


158  STATESMEN 

should  be  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate. 
As  in  Sumner's  case  in  Massachusetts,  later  on, 
it  was  a  coalition  of  Free-Soilers  and  Democrats 
against  the  Hunkers  and  Whigs.  Mr.  Chase  de 
clared  his  intention  to  act  with  the  Independent 
Democrats  in  all  State  issues  so  long  as  they 
stood  by  the  principles  which  were  the  basis 
of  the  coalition.  It  may  be  said  here  that  he 
was  twice  elected  for  Governor  and  twice  for 
Senator,  and  one  of  the  important  results  of  the 
upheaval  which  had  made  his  election  possible 
was  a  repeal  of  the  infamous  Black  Laws  of  the 
State.  These  laws  required  colored  people  to 
give  bonds  for  good  behavior  as  a  condition 
of  residence  in  the  State,  excluded  them  from 
the  schools,  denied  them  the  right  of  testifying 
in  the  courts  when  a  white  man  was  party  on 
either  side,  and  subjected  them  to  various  other 
unjust  and  degrading  disabilities.  With  one  ex 
ception  (the  right  to  sit  on  juries)  these  laws 
were  swept  from  the  statute-book. 

In  the  Senate,  into  which  Chase  now  made  his 
entry,  the  contest  was  over  the  proposition  to 
open  to  slavery  the  whole  of  the  vast  territory 
acquired  by  the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  Gads- 
den  purchase,  and  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hi 
dalgo.  The  people  of  California  had  already 
framed  a  form  of  government  for  themselves, 
excluding  slavery,  and  now  awaited  Federal 
action.  It  is  not  necessary  now  to  dwell  upon 
the  long  debate  that  ensued,  but  it  must  be  said 
that  Senator  Chase's  arguments,  when  he  ven 
tured  into  the  discussion,  at  once  commanded 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  159 

attention  and  respect.  His  remarks  were  never 
greatly  extended.  They  were  always  concise 
and  to  the  point.  For  example,  when  Daniel 
Webster  proposed  that  physical  law  excluded 
slavery  from  a  portion  of  the  new  territory, 
Senator  Chase  asked:  "  Is  it  true  that  any  law 
of  physical  geography  will  protect  the  new 
Territories  from  the  curse  of  slavery  ?  Peonism 
was  there  under  the  Mexican  law,  and  if  peon- 
ism  were  not  there  to  warn  us,  what  may  be 
expected  if  slavery  be  not  prohibited  ?  " 

In  the  debate  over  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  he 
pleaded  earnestly  for  some  amelioration  of  the 
iron  statute  which  the  slaveholders  insisted  upon 
forcing  upon  the  country.  The  right  of  trial  by 
jury,  he  urged,  ought  at  least  to  be  embodied 
into  the  law.  "  If  the  most  ordinary  contro 
versy,"  he  said,  "  involving  a  contested  claim  to 
$20,  must  be  decided  by  a  jury,  surely  a  contro 
versy  which  involves  the  right  of  a  man  to  his 
liberty  should  have  a  similar  trial." 

The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  by  the 
passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  was  another 
opportunity  which  Chase  readily  embraced  to 
disclose  his  immovable  position  on  the  general 
subject  of  human  rights.  He  pleaded  only  that 
the  people  of  the  Territories,  acting  through 
their  proper  representatives  in  the  Territorial 
Legislature  and  subject  to  the  limitations  of  the 
Constitution,  should  be  able  to  protect  them 
selves  against  slavery  by  prohibiting  it.  This 
principle  was  steadfastly  denied  by  the  pro- 
slavery  Senators.  When  the  battle  was  won  for 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  161 

the  pro-slavery  cause,  great  was  the  jubilation  of 
the  people  who  had  for  weeks  crowded  the  gal 
leries  and  lobbies  of  the  Capitol  waiting  for  the 
determination  of  the  question.  It  was  dark  in  the 
early  morning  of  March  4,  1854,  after  a  session 
of  seventeen  hours,  when  the  bill  finally  passed 
the  Senate.  Senators  Chase  and  Sumner  walked 
down  the  steps  of  the  Capitol  together.  The 
thunder  of  a  cannon's  salute  by  the  victorious 
slave-owners  fell  upon  their  ears.  Said  Chase : 
"  They  celebrate  a  present  victory,  but  the 
echoes  that  they  awake  will  never  rest  until 
slavery  itself  shall  die." 

Nominated  for  Governor  of  Ohio  by  the  Re 
publican  party  in  1855,  Chase  stumped  the 
State,  making  a  series  of  vigorous  and  effective 
speeches.  During  his  term  of  office  the  State 
was  repeatedly  torn  with  dissensions  over  ques 
tions  raised  by  the  attempt  to  return  fugitive 
slaves.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that  public 
opinion,  since  his  first  activity  in  the  Van  Zandt 
and  similar  cases,  had  greatly  changed  for  the 
better.  It  was  now  thought  necessary  to  apolo 
gize  for  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  authorities  and  their  sympathizers  to  ex 
ecute  the  infamous  and  generally  unpopular  law 
regarding  fugitive  slaves.  Some  of  these  cases 
were  of  a  peculiarly  distressing  character,  the 
celebrated  case  of  Margaret  Garner  being  one. 
This  was  a  peculiarly  horrible  affair,  a  fugitive 
slave -mother  undertaking  to  kill  her  offspring 
rather  than  see  them  remanded  again  to  bond 
age.  And  it  is  possible  that  the  tragicalness  of 
11 


162  STATESMEN 

this  dreadful  business,  and  the  bloody  heroism 
of  the  slave  mother,  did  much  to  stir  the  con 
science  of  people  who  had  been  disposed  to 
apologize  and  defend  the  peculiar  institution. 

Under  the  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  stalwart  and  indomitable  Republican 
Senator  from  Ohio  should  develop  an  ambition 
for  the  Presidential  nomination  of  his  party.  It 
is  not  certain  that  he  aided  materially  in  any  of 
the  plans  of  his  Ohio  friends,  which  had  for  their 
purpose  his  nomination  in  1860,  by  the  National 
Republican  Convention  at  Chicago;  but  the 
delegation  from  his  State  was  not  united,  and 
although  his  name  was  presented  and  figured 
somewhat  conspicuously  in  the  list  of  candidates 
before  the  balloting,  he  did  not  cut  a  great  fig 
ure  in  the  convention.  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
nominated  and  elected.  Very  earl)-  in  January 
following  Chase  was  invited  to  meet  Lincoln 
in  Springfield.  The  President  -  elect  cordially 
greeted  him,  and  said :  "  I  have  done  with  you 
what  I  would  not  perhaps  have  ventured  to  do 
with  any  other  man  in  the  country — sent  for 
you  to  ask  you  whether  you  will  accept  the  ap 
pointment  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with 
out,  however,  being  exactly  prepared  to  offer  it 
to  you."  To  this  somewhat  embarrassing  prop 
osition  Chase  replied  that  he  was  in  an  unpleas 
ant  position.  He  wanted  no  appointment,  and 
certainly  could  hardly  reconcile  himself  to  the 
acceptance  of  a  subordinate  place.  Lincoln  told 
him  that  he  felt  bound  to  offer  the  first  place  to 
Seward,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  Lin- 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  163 

coin's  chief  opponent  in  the  contest  for  the 
Presidental  nomination.  Finally,  however,  soon 
after  Lincoln's  arrival  in  Washington,  Chase 
was  nominated  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate, 
much  to  his  surprise,  no  word  having  passed 
between  the  President-elect  and  himself  mean 
while. 

It  was  as  the  great  Finance  Minister  of  the 
civil  war  that  Chase's  real  genius  was  set  to 
work  and  his  proudest  laurels  were  won.  The 
condition  of  the  Treasury  when  he  took  charge 
was  deplorable.  The  public  finances  were 
greatly  depressed ;  Congress  had  been  rent  by 
stormy  factions,  and  a  powerful  body  of  the 
Northern  people  protested  passionately  against 
the  existence  of  any  power  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Government  to  coerce  the  so-called  se 
ceding  States.  Chase's  biographer,  Mr.  Shuck- 
ers,  says  of  him :  "  His  abilities  and  energies 
soon  manifested  themselves  to  the  people.  He 
re-established  the  public  credit  upon  solid  foun 
dations.  He  created  a  currency  which  answered 
all  the  vast  requirements  of  the  war,  and  was 
beyond  all  precedent  in  the  history  of  the  country 
popular  among  the  people,  and  this,  too,  before 
the  suspension  of  cash  payments.  It  is  impor 
tant  to  be  remembered  that  that  currency  was 
not  at  first  a  legal  tender.  He  projected  a  sys 
tem  of  national  banks  designed  ultimately  to 
supersede  all  similar  institutions  existing  under 
State  laws.  The  circulating  notes  of  these  banks, 
secured  both  by  private  capital  and  by  ample 
deposits  of  government  bonds  in  the  Treasury  of 


16  i  STATESMEN 

the  United  States,  were  intended  to  provide  in 
an  emphatic  sense  a  sound  and  uniform  currency, 
the  benefits  of  which  (embracing  the  whole 
country  and  extending  into  the  far  future)  were 
to  prevent  the  evils  inseparable  from  disordered 
issues.  Under  the  general  operation  of  his 
measures  the  loans  of  the  government  were  ab 
sorbed  with  great  rapidity,  not  only  by  domestic 
purchasers,  but  by  foreign  investors,  and  more 
important  than  any  other  consideration,  the  ad 
ministration  was  enabled  to  meet  the  prodigious 
expenditures  entailed  by  the  war,  promptly, 
surely,  regularly." 

Webster  said  of  Alexander  Hamilton :  "  He 
smote  the  rock  of  the  national  resources  and 
abundant  streams  of  revenue  gushed  forth." 
How  truly  this  may  be  said  of  Chase  we  may 
gather  from  Elaine's  comment  in  his  "  Twenty 
Years  of  Congress,"  on  the  system  of  internal 
revenue  planned  and  put  into  operation  by  Secre 
tary  Chase  :  "  Congress  rendered  the  taxes  more 
palatable  and  less  oppressive  to  the  producers 
by  largely  increasing  the  duties  on  imports  by 
the  tariff  act  of  July  14,  1862,  thus  shutting  out 
still  more  conclusively  all  competition  from  for 
eign  fabrics.  The  increased  cost  was  charged  to 
the  consumer,  and  taxes  of  fabulous  amounts 
were  paid  promptly  and  with  apparent  cheerful 
ness  by  the  people.  The  internal  revenue  was 
bounteous  from  the  first,  and  in  a  short  period 
increased  to  $1,000,000  per  day  for  every  secular 
day  of  the  year.  The  amount  paid  on  incomes 
for  a  single  year  reached  $65,000,000,  the  lead- 


SALMON  P.  OfTASE  165 

ing  merchant  in  New  York  paying  in  one  check 
a  tax  of  $400,000  on  an  income  of  $4,000,000. 
.  .  .  It  was  the  crowning  glory  of  Secretary 
Chase's  policy,  and  its  scope  and  boldness  en 
title  him  to  rank  with  the  great  financiers  of 
the  world." 

Nor  were  the  operations  of  Chase's  broad  and 
comprehensive  mind  confined  to  the  finances  of 
the  government.  He  was  consulted  in  the  con 
duct  of  the  war  at  almost  every  step,  and  where 
Secretary  Seward  was  deemed  hesitating  and 
conservative,  Secretary  Chase  was  always  bold, 
aggressive,  and  progressive.  He  assisted  in  the 
early  formation  of  the  army  of  volunteers,  a 
duty  in  which  his  active  and  thoughtful  meas 
ures  to  promote  the  efficiency  of  the  Ohio  mi 
litia  admirably  fitted  him.  We  are  told  that 
Chase  during  this  period  often  lamented  that  he 
had  not  himself  in  early  life  turned  his  thoughts 
to  the  study  of  military  strategy.  He  had  in 
him  many  of  the  qualities  that  make  a  great 
soMier.  He  never  lost  his  mental  balance  or 
self-possession ;  in  moments  of  the  greatest  ex 
terior  excitement,  he  was  thoughtful,  collected, 
and  calm.  Horace  Greeley  once  impetuously 
declared  at  a  breakfast -table  in  Washington, 
during  one  of  the  dark  periods  of  the  war: 
"  Why  does  not  President  Lincoln  make  Gov 
ernor  Chase  commander  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  ?  If  he  had  been,  the  war  would  have 
ended  in  eighteen  months." 

When  we  reflect  that  Mr.  Chase  at  one  time 
in  his  life  seriously  thought  of  taking  holy  orders, 


166  STATESMEN 

but  did  become  a  politician  and  a  financier,  his 
regret  that  he  had  not  been  a  soldier  may  seem 
somewhat  grotesque  to  one  who  does  not  know 
how  the  stress  and  the  strain  of  the  civil  war  com 
pelled  many  a  man  to  wish  that  he  too  were  a 
strategist  and  a  soldier.  In  one  of  his  letters  to 
Mr.  Trowbridge,  before  referred  to,  Chase  said : 
"  While  he  was  Secretary  of  War  General  Cam 
eron  conferred  much  with  me.  I  never  under 
took  to  do  anything  in  his  department  except 
when  asked  to  give  my  help,  and  then  I  gave  it 
willingly.  In  addition  to  Western  border  State 
matters,  the  principal  subjects  between  General 
Cameron  and  myself  were  slavery  and  the  em 
ployment  of  colored  troops.  We  agreed  very 
early  that  the  necessity  of  arming  them  was 
inevitable,  but  we  were  alone  in  that  opinion.  At 
least  no  other  member  of  the  administration 
gave  open  support,  while  the  President  and  Mr. 
Blair  at  least  were  decidedly  averse  to  it." 
And  yet  the  time  came  when  the  employment  of 
colored  troops  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebel 
lion  was  not  only  accepted  as  a  necessity,  but  was 
eagerly  demanded  and  approved  by  all  the  loyal 
people  of  the  North. 

Chase's  resignation  of  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  in  June,  1864,  was  the  result  of 
a  series  of  misunderstandings  or  disagreements 
between  himself  and  President  Lincoln  in  relation 
to  Federal  appointments.  It  must  be  admitted 
that  Chase's  selections  for  office  were  not  always 
wise.  Possibly  they  were  in  some  instances  bet 
ter  than  those  of  the  President,  but  he  insisted 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  167 

with  most  autocratic  vehemence  that  he  should 
be  sole  in  authority  in  all  matters  pertaining  to 
the  patronage  of  his  high  office,  and  while  the 
President  often  did  defer  to  the  Secretary's  will 
when  it  clashed  with  his  own,  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  time  when  the  Secretary  deferred 
to  the  President's  will  when  it  interfered  with 
his ;  or  if  he  did,  it  was  with  ill  grace,  and  after 
several  such  disagreements  Secretary  Chase  ab 
ruptly  left  the  Cabinet.  His  well-known  ambi 
tion  to  be  President  was  very  naturally  revived 
by  the  insidious  flatterers  who  thronged  about 
him  as  soon  as  it  was  known  that  he  had  definite 
ly  quitted  Lincoln's  Cabinet  with  something  like 
a  personal  quarrel  with  the  President.  Many 
politicians  who  had  become  dissatisfied  with 
Lincoln's  policy,  whether  justly  or  unjustly, 
thought  they  saw  in  the  towering  figure  of  the 
ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury  an  opportunity  to 
divide  the  party  and  to  lead  the  more  radical 
elements  to  victory  through  his  candidacy.  The 
nomination  for  the  new  Presidential  term  was 
about  coming  on,  and  some  of  the  ill-advised 
friends  of  the  ex-Secretary  put  forth  frantic 
efforts  to  secure  his  nomination.  Among  other 
devices,  a  so-called  secret  circular  was  put  out 
by  Senator  Pomeroy,  of  Kansas,  and  others. 
Commenting  on  this  ill-starred  venture  of  the 
anti-Lincoln  Republicans,  Elaine  says :  "  These 
various  elements  of  discontent  and  opposition 
clustered  about  Secretary  Chase  and  found  in 
him  their  natural  leader.  He  was  the  head  of 
the  radical  forces  in  the  Cabinet,  as  Mr.  Seward 


168  STATESMEN 

was  the  exponent  of  the  conservative  policy. 
Me  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  zeal 
ous  chiefs  of  the  Free  Soil  party,  and  ranked 
among  the  brightest  stars  in  that  small  galaxy 
of  anti-slavery  Senators  who  bore  so  memorable 
a  part  in  the  Congressional  struggles  before  the 
war.  He  was  justly  distinguished  as  a  political 
leader  and  an  able  and  a  versatile  statesman.  For 
the  part  he  was  now  desired  and  expected  to 
play  he  had  a  decided  inclination  and  not  a  few 
advantages.  Keenly  ambitious,  he  was  justified 
by  his  talents,  however  mistaken  his  time  and 
his  methods,  in  aspiring  to  the  highest  place." 

Chase  had  all  along  clung  to  the  proposition 
that  no  President  should  have  a  second  term  of 
office,  and  he  had  added  the  opinion  that  a  man 
of  different  qualities  from  those  of  Lincoln 
would  be  needed  for  the  next  four  years  suc 
ceeding  his  first  term.  A  few  days  after  the 
appearance  of  the  so-called  secret  circular  of 
Pomeroy,  the  Republican  members  of  the  Ohio 
Legislature  passed  a  resolution  in  favor  of  Lin 
coln's  renomination,  upon  w^hich  Chase  with 
drew  his  name  as  a  candidate.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  opposition  to  Lincoln's  renomination 
practically  ended  then  and  there,  although  it 
still  showed  itself  in  fitful  bursts  of  restlessness 
before  his  renomination  at  Baltimore,  in  the 
summer  of  1864. 

Later  in  that  year,  Roger  B.  Taney,  that  ex- 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who  had  been  re 
warded  with  the  great  office  of  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  by  An- 


170  STATESMEN 

drew  Jackson,  for  his  subserviency  in  the  mat 
ter  of  removing-  the  public  deposits  from  the 
United  States  bank,  died.  By  a  curious  coinci 
dence,  another  ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
but  far  more  renowned,  honest,  and  pure,  was 
nominated  to  take  his  place.  While  the  office 
remained  unfilled,  there  was  great  concern 
throughout  the  country  over  the  possible  action 
of  President  Lincoln.  Sumner  and  many  oth 
er  advanced  Republicans  besought  Lincoln  to 
nominate  Chase ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
President  was  overwhelmed  with  expostulations 
from  his  own  friends,  who  besought  him  to  re 
member  that  the  man  whose  nomination  seemed 
imminent  had  been  his  rival  in  the  preceding 
canvass  for  the  Presidential  nomination,  and  to 
withhold  from  him  this  high  honor.  One  day 
during  the  pendency  of  this  doubt  I  had  occa 
sion  to  see  the  President  in  his  private  office. 
He  was  in  gay  humor,  and  asked  what  was  the 
news.  I  said  :  "  Mr.  President,  there  is  no  news." 
"  Very  well,"  he  said  ;  "  what  are  people  talking 
about  ? "  "  They  are  guessing  who  will  be 
Taney's  successor,"  I  said,  jocularly.  Instantly 
his  countenance  fell,  and,  with  a  grave  and  seri 
ous  expression,  he  said,  pointing  to  a  huge  pile 
of  telegrams  and  letters  on  his  table :  "  I  have 
been  all  day  and  yesterday  and  the  day  before 
besieged  by  messages  from  my  friends  all  over 
the  country,  as  if  there  were  a  determination  to 
put  up  the  bars  between  Governor  Chase  and 
myself."  Then,  after  a  pause,  he  added  :  "  But  I 
shall  nominate  him  for  Chief  Justice  neverthe- 


SALMON  P.  CHASE 


171 


less."    Chase's  nomination  was  sent  in  to  the  Sen 
ate  December  6th,  in  a  message  written  in  Lin- 


The   Negro-Pew.      [An   Actual  View.] 

coin's  own  hand.  His  confirmation  was  imme 
diate,  and  in  the  noble  place  of  Chief  Justice 
the  ex-Secretary,  ex-Governor,  and  ex-Senator 
filled  the  highest  expectations  of  his  friends  and 


172  STATESMEN 

covered  his  enemies  with  confusion.  He  pre 
sided  over  the  deliberations  of  the  Senate,  as 
required  by  law,  when  that  body  sat  as  a  High 
Court  of  Impeachment,  listening  to  the  charges 
preferred  by  the  House  in  the  matter  of  Andrew 
Johnson's  alleged  illegal  proceeding  in  the  at 
tempt  to  remove  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary 
of  War.  In  the  midst  of  the  excitements  and 
factional  heats  that  circled  about  the  Capitol, 
only  one  man  seemed  immovable,  calm,  and  un- 
impressible.  That  was  the  Chief  Justice,  who 
in  imperturbable  dignity  presided  over  the  High 
Court.  To  his  wisdom,  his  calmness,  and  ju 
dicial  firmness  that  now  historical  tribunal  owes 
its  highest  claim  to  the  respect  and  gratitude  of 
our  people. 

As  Chief  Justice,  Chase's  labors  were  ardu 
ous  and  excessive.  He  had  borne  a  tremendous 
strain  while  he  held  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  during  the  most  trying  period  of 
American  history.  He  came  to  the  duties  of 
the  Supreme  Bench  with  a  consciousness  that 
his  later  activities  had  unfitted  him  for  a  judicial 
post,  but  no  one  could  ever  see  that  he  lacked 
any  of  the  qualities  requisite  for  his  duties.  He 
overcame  any  obstacles  that  he  might  himself 
have  seen  by  dint  of  the  severest  labor,  and  by 
studies  the  extent  of  which  probably  not  even 
the  members  of  his  family  fully  realized.  He 
was  a  good  judge,  an  honest  jurist,  and  a  stern, 
severe  patriot. 

Undoubtedly  the  heavy  tax  upon  his  physical 
strength,  great  though  that  strength  was,  hast- 


SALMON  P.  CHASE  173 

ened  the  catastrophe  in  which  his  powers  were 
finally  involved  in  ruin.  After  one  or  two  warn 
ings  in  the  form  of  slighter  shocks,  he  was  finally 
laid  on  the  bed  of  sickness  by  a  severe  stroke  of 
paralysis,  from  which  he  never  recovered  ;  and 
he  died  on  the  /th  of  May,  1873,  having  passed 
the  age  of  seventy  years. 

Chase's  character  was  grave,  serious,  serene. 
He  had  little  or  no  sense  of  humor,  and,  as 
his  biographers  have  said,  never  told  a  story  but 
to  spoil  it.  He  took  life  seriously  and  with 
a  certain  severity  of  conscientiousness  which 
to  many  seemed  excessive  Puritanism.  He  was 
methodical,  systematic,  a  rigid  disciplinarian, 
punctilious  in  regard  to  all  the  forms  of  official 
and  social  intercourse,  and  he  exacted  of  every 
subordinate  the  same  loyalty  to  duty  and  the 
same  exactness  of  statement  which  he  himself 
rendered  as  a  matter  of  conscience  and  of  habit. 
His  personal  appearance  was  majestic  and  noble. 
His  commanding  figure,  six  feet  two  inches 
high,  was  admirably  proportioned.  His  head 
was  massive  ;  his  face  wore  an  impress  of  dignity 
which  was  sometimes  awful.  He  lacked  the 
magnetism  of  Henry  Clay  and  the  godlike  maj 
esty  of  Daniel  Webster ;  but  none  who  ever  saw 
his  towering  form  moving  through  the  corridors 
of  the  Treasury  Department,  or  clad  in  the 
robes  of  the  Chief  Justice,  can  ever  forget  the 
almost  oracular  appearance  which  inspired  the 
veneration  and  respect  of  those  who  looked  upon 
his  figure  or  heard  the  slow,  calm  utterances  of 
his  voice.  He  was  respected,  even  venerated, 


174  STATESMEN 

but  he  was  never  "popular"  in  the  sense  with 
which  Americans  use  that  word.  His  friends 
were  devoted  to  his  fortunes,  but  they  were  not 
reckoned  as  Clay  and  Webster  reckoned  theirs 
—by  hosts.  His  tastes  were  simple,  his  habits 
domestic,  and  his  private  and  public  character 
stainless. 

Demarest  Lloyd,  in  an  admirable  sketch  of 
Chase,  printed  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  soon 
after  the  death  of  the  Chief  Justice,  says :  "  His 
will  was  his  great  power.  This  faculty  in  him 
probably  more  than  any  other  contributed  to  his 
success.  It  was  dominating  and  indomitable. 
It  yielded  to  no  man  and  to  no  force.  Its  per 
sistency  was  measured  only  by  the  length  of 
the  task  to  be  accomplished,  and  its  firmness 
increased  with  the  weight  of  interests  that  de 
pended  upon  it;  and  while  it  no  doubt  short 
ened  his  life,  it  again  prolonged  it.  ...  All 
through  these  exciting  and  arduous  periods  he 
held  himself  firmly  to  his  post.  Then  came  the 
first  shock  that  prostrated  him,  and  first  set  the 
term  beyond  which  he  could  hardly  endure ;  at 
this  the  will  turned  to  repair  its  own  ravages." 
Of  Salmon  P.  Chase  it  may  be  truly  said  that 
his  whole  life  was  formed  upon  the  moral  incul 
cated  in  his  earliest  youth — "  Where  there  is  a 
will  there  is  a  way." 


VII. 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

IT  is  difficult  to  see  how  anyone  who  believes 
in  God  and  in  His  watchful  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  nations  and  individuals,  can  study  the  story  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  not  be  impressed  with  the 
idea  that  here  was  a  man  divinely  appointed  and 
trained  for  a  certain  work.  In  the  earlier  chap 
ters  of  this  book  we  have  seen  how  persistently 
the  political  power  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States  asserted  itself.  Good  and  patriotic  men 
on  both  sides  of  the  question  had  tried  to  put 
aside  slavery  and  all  that  hung  on  that  institu 
tion,  so  that  it  should  no  longer  appear  in  public 
affairs.  Again  and  again  they  had,  as  they  fond 
ly  thought,  buried  the  whole  matter  so  com 
pletely  out  of  sight  that  it  never  would  be  heard 
of  again  ;  but,  like  an  uneasy  ghost,  it  continually 
came  stalking  in  where  it  was  neither  expected 
nor  desired.  This  could  not  be  otherwise,  in  the 
very  nature  of  things.  Slavery  was  restless  and 
aggressive.  It  could  not  be  confined  to  the  States 
in  which  it  had  existed  for  so  many  years  unques 
tioned.  It  was  not  the  fault  of  the  slave-holding 
States  that  human  bondage  was  first  made  law 
ful  within  their  borders ;  and  now  that  it  was 
there,  it  could  not  be  got  rid  of. 


Lincoln's  Approved  Likeness. 

This  picture  is  after  a  photograph  of  Lincoln  taken  in  Washington  in  1862,  and 
was  given  to  Mr.  Brooks  by  Mrs.  Lincoln,  with  the  remark  that  it  was  her  hus 
band's  favorite  likeness.  When  the  picture,  a  miniature,  was  shown  to  Lincoln, 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln's  remark  repeated  to  him,  he  said.  "  I  don't  know  that  I  have 
any  favorite  portrait  of  myself ;  but  I  have  thought  that  if  I  looked  like  any  of  the 
likenesses  of  me  that  have  been  taken,  I  look  most  like  that  one."  The  picture  has 
never  before  been  engraved. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  177 

What  was  more,  slavery  must  have  an  outlet. 
The  natural  increase  of  the  slaves  would  soon 
overstock  the  home  market.  There  must  be 
some  way  of  disposing  of  this  increasing  surplus. 
Nor  was  this  all.  The  area  of  the  United  States 
was  frequently  being  added  to  by  the  acquisition 
of  new  territory  in  various  directions.  As  these 
new  territories  should  enter  the  Union  of  States, 
unless  some  of  them  came  in  as  slave-holding 
States,  the  non-slave-holding  States  would  soon 
outnumber  those  in  which  slavery  existed ;  and 
slavery  needed  legislation  to  enable  itself  to  hold 
its  own  where  it  was  already  established.  This 
law-making  power  could  not  be  had  if  the  free 
States  outnumbered  the  slave  States.  Calhoun, 
who  looked  further  ahead  than  most  of  the  men 
of  his  time,  saw  that  unless  the  newly  acquired  ter 
ritory  would  be  evenly  divided  between  the  slave- 
holding  and  the  non-slave-holding  States,  the 
cherished  institution  was  doomed.  He  worried 
greatly  over  the  disturbance  of  the  equilibrium 
in  the  Senate  in  favor  of  the  non-slave-holding 
States,  giving  to  these  more  votes  in  the  Senate 
than  the  slave-holding  States  had.  He  died  be 
fore  this  actually  happened,  but  up  to  his  latest 
breath  he  insisted  that  every  time  a  new  State 
was  taken  into  the  Union  as  a  free  State,  another 
must  be  taken  in  as  a  slave  State. 

It  was  this  determination  to  preserve  "  the 
equilibrium,"  of  which  Calhoun  had  so  much  to 
say,  that  forced  the  question  of  slavery  to  the 
surface  every  time  we  acquired  territory  from 
which  new  States  were  to  be  carved.  As  we 

/  - 


178  STATESMEN 

were  constantly  increasing  our  area  in  this  way, 
slavery,  anxious  to  secure  an  outlet  and  a  market 
for  its  chattels,  and  equally  determined  to  keep 
even  the  balance  of  po.wer,  if  not  inclining  to  its 
own  side,  made  itself  heard  in  boisterous  advo 
cacy  of  its  claims.  But  the  world  was  all  the 
while  growing  more  and  more  disposed  to  re 
gard  human  bondage  as  wrong  and  wicked,  and 
unless  something  were  done  to  commit  the  whole 
Republic  of  the  United  States  to  the  perpetua 
tion  of  slavery  as  a  good  thing,  the  time  would 
soon  come  when  that  would  not  only  be  im 
possible,  but  the  bolder  sort  of  anti-slavery  men 
would  even  venture  into  an  invasion  of  the  right 
to  hold  slaves  in  States  in  which  slavery  had  ex 
isted  for  many  years  without  serious  objection 
from  anybody. 

By  dint  of  bullying,  and  by  wheedling  some 
of  the  Congressmen  from  the  non-slave-holding 
States  into  their  support,  the  representatives  of 
the  slave-holding  States  managed  to  stave  off  for 
a  while  the  evil  day  when  their  absolute  power 
in  national  affairs  would  be  broken.  Clay  helped 
to  postpone  that  day  by  compromises  that  gave 
him  the  name  of  the  "  Great  Pacificator."  Ben- 
ton,  a  representative  from  a  slave-holding  State, 
failed  to  see  the  necessity  of  providing  room  for 
slavery  to  grow  in ;  or,  if  he  did  see  it,  he  did 
not  care  to  make  that  provision.  Webster  was 
the  awful  example  of  a  great  genius  blinded  by 
a  desire  to  keep  friendly  relations  with  a  slave- 
holding  interest  which  his  own  people  at  home 
regarded  with  aversion.  But  Calhoun  never  for 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  179 

a  moment  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that,  unless  his 
own  people  could  maintain  themselves  against 
the  rising  tide  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the 
North  and  the  insidious  growth  of  free  institu 
tions  in  the  newly  acquired  territories,  slavery 
would  have  to  fight  for  its  own  existence  or 
would  be  obliged  to  leave  the  Federal  Union, 
which  would  bring  on  another  kind  of  a  fight. 

Calhoun  died  while  this  catastrophe  was  draw 
ing  nigh,  and  when  the  forces  that  made  it  inev 
itable  were  gathering  cohesion.  But  the  fight 
came  at  last,  when  the  politics  of  the  country 
showed  that  the  free  States  were  as  strong  as 
the  slave  States  :  if  not  a  little  stronger  then,  they 
would  be  in  a  clear  majority  before  long. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  character  and  training 
of  the  man  who  was  to  be  the  leader  of  the  na 
tion  during  that  memorable  and  deadly  contest 
— Abraham  Lincoln. 

Many  biographers  lay  great  stress  upon  the 
condition  of  poverty,  even  squalor,  into  which 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  born,  as  though  that  were 
not  common  to  the  whole  Western  country.  It 
is  true  that  Lincoln's  parents  were  very  poor. 
His  father,  Thomas  Lincoln,  had  migrated  from 
place  to  place  ever  since  he  had  come  to  man's 
estate,  apparently  always  seeking  for  some  fa 
vored  spot  where  the  soil  was  rich  enough  to 
maintain  a  man  with  little  or  no  labor.  It  does 
not  appear  that  he  ever  found  any  such  place, 
but  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  looking 
for  it.  When  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  boy  (he 
was  born  in  1809)  the  depression  of  trade  and 


180  STATESMEN 

commerce  throughout  the  towns  and  villages  of 
the  old  Thirteen  States  was  very  great.  The 
War  of  1812  had  been  finished,  and  the  condi 
tion  of  the  country,  after  a  brief  period  of  pros 
perity,  was  most  deplorable.  The  value  of  im 
ported  goods  brought  into  the  United  States 
from  foreign  parts  was  nearly  four  times  as  great 
as  those  exported.  The  public  debt  of  the  gov 
ernment  was  $42,000,000,  and  the  debts  of  the 
several  States  added  together  were  about  one- 
half  that  sum.  Specie  had  gone  out  of  the  coun 
try  to  pay  for  imports,  and  an  almost  worthless 
paper  currency  flooded  the  States  and  Terri 
tories  of  the  West. 

The  consequences  of  a  long  embargo,  when  all 
American  ports  were  closed  to  commerce,  noth 
ing  going  out  and  nothing  coming  in,  were  still 
felt  in  every  town,  city,  and  settlement  in  the 
broad  land.  The  manufacturing  industries  of 
the  republic  were  few  and  feeble,  and  imported 
articles  were  so  dear  as  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of 
all  but  the  rich.  Thorns  were  used  for  pins,  and 
bits  of  bone  or  slices  of  corn-cob  were  used  for 
buttons ;  and,  except  in  times  of  plenty,  crusts  of 
rye  bread  served  as  a  substitute  for  coffee,  and 
the  dried  leaves  of  currant-bushes  were  used  in 
place  of  imported  tea.  The  common  drink  of 
the  people  in  the  West  was  corn  whiskey  tem 
pered  with  water,  and  the  principal  sustenance 
of  the  settlers  was  the  wild  game  with  which 
the  woods  swarmed.  Bears,  deer,  woodchucks, 
raccoons,  wild  turkeys,  and  other  furred  and 
feathered  creatures  furnished  the  table  and  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


181 


scanty  wardrobe  of  the  settlers.  Every  man 
and  boy  was  a  hunter  and  a  trapper.  It  was  a 
hard  life  ;  hard  for  the  children,  hardest  for  the 
women. 

Abraham    Lincoln    in    his    eighth    year    was 
tall,  ungainly,  fast -growing,   long- -legged,  and 


Lincoln's  Early  Home  at  Elizabethtown,  Ky. 

dressed  in  the  garb  of  the  frontier.  He  wore  a 
shirt  of  homespun  cotton  and  wool,  dyed,  if  col 
ored  at  all,  with  a  mixture  from  the  roots  and 
barks  of  the  forest.  According  to  his  own  ac 
count,  he  never  wore  stockings  until  he  was  "  a 
young  man  grown."  His  feet  were  covered 
with  rough  cow-hide  shoes,  but  oftener  with 


182  STATESMEN 

moccasons  made  by  his  mother's  hands  or  pro 
cured  from  the  Indians.  Deer-skin  leggings  or 
breeches  and  a  hunting  shirt  of  the  same  stuff 
completed  his  outfit,  except  for  the  'coon-skin 
cap  which  adorned  his  shaggy  head,  the  tail  of 
the  'coon  hanging  down  behind  as  an  ornament 
and  a  convenient  handle  thereof. 

It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1816  that  the  Lincolns 
took  up  their  abode  in  the  wilds  of  Indiana,  hav 
ing  lately  migrated  from  Kentucky.  They  lived 
in  a  log  cabin  built  from  logs  felled  by  the  father, 
Thomas  Lincoln,  with  the  slight  assistance  of 
his  boy.  There  was  no  floor  to  this  abode  but 
the  mother -earth,  cleaned  and  pounded  hard. 
Later  on,  when  by  a  second  marriage  the  neces 
sity  came  for  putting  on  a  better  appearance,  a 
floor  was  laid  of  slabs  of  wood  split  from  oak 
and  hickory  logs,  laid  on  joists  of  timber  and 
loosely  kept  in  place  by  wooden  pinions.  Years 
afterward,  when  the  pioneer  boy  had  become 
the  tenant  of  the  White  House,  he  could  re 
member  how  he  lay  in  bed  of  a  bitter,  cold  morn 
ing,  listening  for  his  mother's  footsteps  rattling 
the  slabs  of  the  rough  oaken  floor  as  she  came 
to  rouse  him  from  his  pretended  sleep. 

Early  the  lad  learned  the  use  of  the  axe,  the 
maul,  and  the  wedge.  These,  with  the  froe,  a 
clumsy  iron  tool,  were  required  for  the  splitting 
of  rails  and  billets  of  wood  to  be  used  in  the 
rough  architecture  and  manufacture  of  the  home 
and  its  furniture.  The  lad's  sinews  were  hard 
ened,  his  hands  toughened,  and  his  mind  stored 
with  a  knowledge  of  wood-craft  and  every  vari- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  183 

ety  of  timber  which  he  never  forgot.  The  fam 
ily  was  surrounded  with  the  forests.  The  times 
were  superstitious,  and  the  woods,  to  many  of 
the  people,  were  filled  with  strange  noises,  mys 
terious  whisperings,  and  wild,  uncanny  creatures. 
They  heard  the  hollow  murmur  of  distant  streams 
and  the  low  hum  that  goes  up  continually  from 
the  hidden  life  of  the  woods  ;  and  in  the  silence 
and  mysterious  darkness  of  the  forest  young 
Lincoln  found  his  most  congenial  place  of  medi 
tation,  though  the  hard-working  lad  had  little 
time  for  solitary  thought  and  communing  with 
nature.  But  here,  as  he  has  himself  said,  he  ac 
quired  habits  of  reflection,  and  he  admitted  that 
he  did  not  like  work  any  better  than  other 
boys  of  his  age.  He  did  like  to  spend  hours  in 
roaming  the  wild-wood,  and  never  to  the  latest 
day  of  his  life  did  he  forget  the  traditions  and 
the  scenery  of  the  wilderness  in  which  his  boy 
hood  was  spent. 

Lincoln's  mother  died,  in  1818,  of  a  mysterious 
disease  known  as  the  "  milk  sick,"  which  ravaged 
all  that  region,  and  is  to  this  day  recalled  as  a 
strange  and  uncatalogued  species  of  pestilence. 
This  was  the  lad's  first  great  sorrow,  and  long 
after,  when  the  spot  where  she  was  buried  had 
been  covered  by  the  wreck  of  the  forests,  her 
son  was  wont  to  say,  "  All  that  I  am  or  hope  to  be 
I  owe  to  my  angel  mother  ;  "  and  the  first  letter 
he  ever  wrote  was  written  to  a  parson  whom  they 
had  known  in  Kentucky,  and  whom  the  family 
now  entreated  to  come  and  preach  the  funeral 
sermon  over  the  grave  of  Nancy  Hanks  Lincoln. 


184:  STATESMEN 

Shiftless  Thomas  Lincoln  was  now  the  only 
reliance  of  the  little  brood  of  children,  the  eld 
est  of  which  was  Sarah,  scarcely  twelve  years 
old  ;  Abe,  two  years  younger  ;  and  Dennis  Hanks, 
an  orphan  cousin  of  young  Lincoln,  a  little  over 
eight  years  old.  After  struggling  with  his  ad 
verse  circumstances  for  a  while  alone,  Thomas 
Lincoln  went  off  and  procured  for  himself  a 
second  wife.  She  was  Sally  Johnston,  of  Eliza- 
bethtown,  Ky.,  and  it  was  to  her  as  much  as 
to  his  own  mother  that  Abraham  owed  much 
of  his  future  comfort.  He  had  already  learned 
to  read  at  his  mother's  knee.  The  three  books 
he  first  absorbed  were  the  Bible, "  ^Esop's  Fables," 
and  the  "  Pilgrim's  Progress."  On  these  three 
were  formed  the  literary  taste  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  So  diligently  did  he  study  them  that  he 
could  repeat  from  memory  many  whole  chapters 
of  the  Bible,  all  of  the  striking  passages  of  Bun- 
yan's  immortal  book,  and  every  one  of  the  fables 
of  JEsop.  "  The  Life  of  Henry  Clay,"  which 
his  mother  had  managed  to  procure  for  him, 
was  his  fourth  and  one  of  his  choicest  treasures. 
Ramsey's  "  Life  of  Washington,"  and  another  by 
Weems,  were  added  by  slow  degrees  to  his  slen 
der  stock  of  books.  Wherever  he  heard  of  a 
book  that  could  be  borrowed,  or  even  read  on 
the  premises  of  the  owner,  thither  he  went  and 
gave  the  book- owner  no  peace  until  he  had  ab 
sorbed  it.  With  the  coming  of  the  step-mother, 
who  was  a  woman  of  thrift  and  energy,  came 
something  like  comfort  into  the  log  cabin  of  the 
Lincolns.  She  brought  with  her  bedding,  knives 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  185 

and  forks,  and  numerous  other  things  to  which 
the  little  family  had  been  unaccustomed.  Then, 
as  Lincoln  said,  he  "  began  to  feel  like  a  human 
being."  Reading  with  him  begot  a  desire  to 
write,  and  as  paper  was  a  luxury  almost  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  pioneer  children  of  those 
days,  he  smoothed  shingles  or  took  the  smooth 
side  of  a  wooden  shovel  and  composed  there 
on  essays  on  topics  of  the  time,  and  even  occa 
sionally  tried  verse-making.  He  learned  to  be 
concise  in  his  literary  style  by  the  circumscribed 
character  of  his  writing  materials.  He  could 
not  use  many  words  when  writing  with  a  big 
piece  of  charcoal  on  a  shingle.  The  future 
President  of  the  United  States  acquired  that 
habit  of  condensing  his  thoughts  for  which  he 
was  afterward  famous,  in  a  severe  school. 

His  step-mother  said  of  him  :  "  He  read  every 
thing  he  could  lay  his  hands  on,  and  when  he 
came  across  a  passage  that  struck  him,  he  would 
write  it  down  on  boards,  if  he  had  no  paper,  and 
keep  it  by  him  until  he  could  get  paper.  Then 
he  would  copy  it,  look  at  it,  commit  it  to  memory, 
and  repeat  it."  In  this  way  he  collected  a  great 
many  things  from  books  that  he  did  not  own  and 
could  not  keep,  and  at  the  age  of  ten  he  had  set 
up  a  commonplace  book  in  which  were  written 
the  noble  thoughts  and  melodious  lines  of  fa 
mous  men.  Later,  but  while  he  was  yet  a  callow 
youth,  some  of  the  literary  productions  of  his 
own  were  thought  good  enough  for  publication 
in  the  county  newspaper.  Of  schooling  he  had 
very  little.  Occasionally  a  school-teacher  would 


186  STATESMEN 

come  into  the  neighborhood,  miles  away  perhaps, 
and  the  little  brood  of  children — Abraham,  his 
sister,  and  his  cousin  Dennis — would  be  seut  to 
trudge  through  the  wild-wood  or  through  the 
snow  to  the  log  schoolhouse. 

When  he  was  seventeen  years  old  he  walked 
a  long  distance  to  attend  court,  where  he  heard 
one  of  the  famous  Breckinridges,  of  Kentucky, 
make  a  notable  speech  in  a  murder  trial.  The 
lawyer's  effort  stirred  the  sleeping  genius  of  the 
lad,  and  from  that  day  he  practised  speech-mak 
ing.  Me  would  take  up  any  topic  that  happened 
to  be  uppermost  in  the  rural  neighborhood— 
road-building,  laying  out  trails,  school-tax,  boun 
ty  on  wolves  or  bears — and,  as  he  called  it, 
"  speechify  "  to  the  gaping  rustics  who  stood 
around  to  hear  him  deliver  his  semi-humorous 
and  extemporaneous  addresses.  Sometimes  he 
would  get  up  a  mock  trial  and  arraign  an  imag 
inary  culprit,  and,  himself  acting  as  prosecuting 
attorney,  counsel  for  the  defendant,  judge,  and 
jury,  go  through  the  formula  and  the  addresses 
of  a  regular  court.  This  entertainment  inter 
fered  with  the  work  of  the  people  and  was 
forbidden  by  his  father,  who  grumbled,  "  When 
Abe  begins  to  speak,  all  hands  flock  to  hear 
him." 

One  notable  thing  about  this  lad  was  that 
when  he  had  begun  to  study  anything  he  was 
never  satisfied  until  he  had  got  to  the  root  of  it. 
He  wrote  and  rewrote  all  that  he  wanted  to 
commit  to  memory.  No  difficult  problem  would 
he  give  up  ;  and  when  he  encountered  a  fact 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  187 

which  to  him  seemed  inexplicable,  he  never 
rested  until  it  was  explained  and  he  had  mas 
tered  its  secret.  In  all  things  he  was  thorough. 
Years  afterward,  when  he  was  President,  and  a 
person  came  to  him  with  a  story  of  a  plot  or 
conspiracy,  with  very  little  information  to  back 
up  his  tale,  Lincoln  said :  "  There  is  one  thing  I 
have  learned  and  you  have  not.  It  is  only  one 
word — 'thorough.'"  Bringing  his  hand  down 
on  the  table  with  a  thump  to  emphasize  his 
meaning,  he  repeated,  "  Thorough." 

Although  he  never  played  cards,  never  learned 
to  dance,  never  drank  any  intoxicating  liquors  of 
any  sort  whatsoever,  and  never  used  a  profane 
word,  he  was  an  important  figure  in  the  rude 
frolics  of  the  settlement.  He  very  soon  acquired 
an  enormous  store  of  amusing  stories.  He  was 
a  good  mimic,  and  in  wrestling  matches  he  was 
renowned.  When  seventeen  years  old  he  had 
attained  his  full  height,  six  feet  four  inches ;  and 
a  powerful  and  muscular  youth  was  he.  But  his 
giant  strength  was  never  used  to  oppress  or  to 
annoy.  In  sport  he  tried  his  muscular  powers 
of  endurance,  and  many  a  time  he  interfered  as 
a  peacemaker  to  break  up  what  seemed  to  be  a 
dangerous  fight.  Far  and  wide  in  the  sparsely 
settled  country  where  he  lived  he  was  famed  for 
his  good  nature,  his  enormous  strength,  and  his 
readiness  to  lend  a  hand  in  any  work  or  sport. 
But  we  can  well  understand  how  he  was  re 
garded  with  strange  curiosity  by  the  rude,  unlet 
tered  pioneers,  who  scarcely  understood  why 
this  tough  clodhopper  should  spend  all  his  spare 


188  STATESMEN 

time  in  poring  over  books  and  in  the  writing 
which  to  them  seemed  so  mysterious  and  useless. 

When  he  was  eighteen  years  old  he  had  his 
first  glimpse  of  the  world  outside  the  woody 
settlement  of  Southern  Indiana.  He  built  with 
his  own  hands  a  boat,  which,  being  loaded  with 
products  of  the  neighborhood,  was  paddled 
down  stream  to  the  nearest  trading-post,  where 
the  cargo  \vas  disposed  of.  Here  he  saw  a  steam 
boat  coming  up  the  river,  and  being  engaged  by 
two  wayfarers  to  take  them  and  their  trunks  out 
to  the  steamer  from  the  bank,  he  was  paid  two 
silver  half-dollars,  his  first  great  earnings.  "  I 
could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes,"  he  said,  years 
afterward.  "  You  may  think  it  a  very  little  thing, 
but  it  was  the  most  important  incident  in  my  life. 
I  could  scarcely  believe  that  I,  a  poor  boy,  had 
earned  a  dollar  in  less  than  a  day.  The  world 
seemed  wider  and  fairer  before  me.  I  was  a 
more  hopeful  and  confident  being  from  that 
time." 

Two  years  later  he  went  down  the  Mississippi 
River  to  New  Orleans  as  a  flat-boatman,  where 
he  had  a  series  of  entertaining  adventures  and 
saw  still  more  of  the  great  world.  Shortly  after 
his  return  his  father  moved  again — this  time  to 
Illinois — and  on  the  fifteen-day  journey  to  the 
fat  lands  of  Macon  County,  where  the  old  man 
expected  to  find  milk  and  honey  flowing,  Lin 
coln  drove  the  ox-wagon  which  carried  the  house 
hold  goods ;  and  when  the  family  once  more  cast 
anchor,  another  log  cabin  was  built,  and  Abra 
ham  not  only  played  a  man's  part  in  felling  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  189 

logs  and  building  the  cabin,  but  also,  with  his 
cousin,  Thomas  Hanks,  he  split  the  rails  that 
fenced  in  the  fifteen  acres  which  were  to  be  put 
under  cultivation.  This  done,  young  Abraham 
"struck  out  for  himself."  He  was  ready  to  do 
work  wherever  he  could  get  it,  and  again  as  a 
flat-boatman  he  made  another  venture  to  New 
Orleans,  where  he  got  his  first  glimpse  of  slav 
ery.  It  has  been  put  on  record  by  one  of  his 
companions  that  his  heart  bled,  "  and  slavery 
ran  its  iron  into  him  then  and  there."  He  lived 
several  years  at  New  Salem,  one  of  those  little 
mushroom  villages  that  rise  and  fall  in  the  un 
easy  movement  of  a  new  population,  and  his 
succeeding  years  were  homeless,  half  the  time 
working  and  half  the  time  idling,  and  without 
any  special  aim  in  life  except  to  gain  food  and 
shelter.  He  was  a  pilot  on  a  steamboat,  clerk  in 
a  store  or  a  mill,  and  drifting  about  from  time 
to  time,  always  in  pursuit  of  something  better. 
Somehow,  "  tending  "  a  country  store  suited  him 
best;  it  gave  him  leisure  to  read',  study,  and 
meditate. 

As  a  wrestler  and  an  athlete,  the  tall,  gaunt 
young  Kentuckian  soon  acquired  great  fame, 
and  in  an  encounter  with  a  party  of  overgrown 
young  men  of  Clary's  Grove,  a  settlement  not 
far  from  New  Salem,  he  gave  them  a  test  of  his 
quality.  The  entire  gang  were  ready  to  break 
in  and  interrupt  a  wrestling-bout  between  him 
self  and  one  Jack  Armstrong,  when  his  antag 
onist,  resorting  to  foul  play,  so  roused  the 
wrath  of  Lincoln  that,  putting  forth  all  his 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  191 

giant  strength,  he  flung  Armstrong  in  the  air, 
the  legs  of  the  champion  of  the  Clary's  Grove 
boys  whirling  madly  around  his  head.  At  this 
astounding  performance  the  entire  party  made  a 
dead  set  against  the  new-comer,  who  was  calmly 
waiting  their  onset,  when  the  vanquished  cham 
pion  chivalrously  demanded  a  truce.  Shaking 
Lincoln  by  the  hand,  he  said  :  "  Boys,  Abe  Lin 
coln  is  the  best  fellow  that  ever  broke  into  this 
settlement.  He  shall  be  one  of  us."  Lincoln 
by  general  consent  became  the  peacemaker 
and  the  arbitrator  of  all  the  petty  quarrels 
of  the  neighborhood  ;  shunning  vulgar  brawls 
himself,  he  attempted  to  keep  others  out  of 
them,  and  when  debate  around  the  door  of  the 
cross-roads  store  grew  too  animated  and  blows 
came  in  to  settle  disputes,  the  terrific  windmill  of 
Lincoln's  long  arms  invariably  brought  peace. 
One  of  the  luxuries  of  that  time  with  him  was 
a  subscription  to  the  Louisville  Courier,  then 
edited  by  that  famous  Whig,  George  D.  Pren 
tice,  and  to  secure  the  paper  Lincoln  denied 
himself  necessary  clothing.  He  was  studying 
politics. 

The  Black  Hawk  War,  a  disturbance  in  the 
northern  part  of  Illinois  in  1832,  called  forth 
his  patriotism  and  energies,  and  at  the  head 
of  a  little  company  of  volunteers  he  marched 
to  the  relief  of  the  panic-stricken  country.  It 
was  here  that  he  secured  his  first  and  only  mar 
tial  honor.  It  was  the  title  of  Captain.  In  this 
capacity  he  saved  the  life  of  an  old  savage  who 
had  strayed  from  his  own  camp,  and  was  res- 


192  STATESMEN 

cued  from  instant  death  by  Lincoln,  who  inter- 
posed,  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  between  his 
soldiers  and  the  wanderer.  Returning  home 
—the  war  soon  over — he  was  a  candidate  for 
the  Legislature,  and  was  brought  into  contact 
with  many  of  the  prominent  men  of  the  State, 
and  he  took  the  stump  in  his  own  behalf.  In 
this  venture  he  was  defeated  ;  but  the  next  year 
he  was  more  successful,  and  then  served  in  the 
State  Legislature  three  terms.  It  was  here  that 
his  political  ambition  became  aroused,  and  es 
pousing  the  then  popular  policy  of  the  Whigs 
—internal  improvements — he  helped  to  project 
a  great  variety  of  improvements,  very  few  of 
which  ever  took  on  material  shape.  But  he  did, 
however,  plume  himself  greatly  on  his  success 
in  changing  the  capital  from  Vandalia  to  Spring 
field — a  piece  of  political  management  which  in 
later  years  he  regarded  with  amusement  and 
contempt.  In  Springfield  he  now  "  hung  out 
his  shingle"  as  a  lawyer.  He  had  read  Black- 
stone — almost  committed  the  work  to  memory— 
and  had  by  practising  in  a  small  way  among  his 
neighbors  secured  a  fair  legal  education,  and  was 
readily  admitted  to  the  Bar.  He  had  under 
taken  small  cases  on  trial  before  the  local  jus 
tice  of  the  peace,  and  had  been  "  everybody's 
friend."  He  had  tried  his  hand,  too,  at  survey 
ing,  and  was  in  fact  a  jack-of-all-trades,  readily 
turning  his  hand  to  every  form  of  activity  re 
quired  in  a  raw,  new  country  like  that  in  which 
he  lived.  His  very  first  case  in  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court  he  threw  up,  with  the  dec- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  193 

laration  that  on  careful  examination  he  found  all 
the  authorities  on  the  other  side  and  none  on 
his.  This  characteristic  honesty  of  purpose  and 
frankness  of  opinion  was  only  part  and  parcel  of 
his  character,  already  well  formed.  He  was  the 
protector  of  the  innocent  and  the  oppressed,  the 
prosecutor  of  wrong-doing,  and,  with  his  habit 
of  going  thoroughly  to  the  bottom  of  things, 
was  usually  able  to  convince  any  jury  of  the  jus 
tice  of  his  case  ;  and  the  appeals  he  made  to  rea 
son  were  so  fervid  that  his  hearers  were  often 
astonished  and,  as  we  may  say,  convinced  against 
their  will. 

On  the  stump,  as  a  frequent  candidate  for 
the  Legislature,  or  an  advocate  of  the  political 
claims  of  other  men,  he  made  himself  so  accept 
able  to  the  gatherings  of  the  neighborhood  that 
he  always  drew  a  crowd  wherever  he  went ;  and 
in  the  chats  that  followed  as  the  concourse  broke 
up  into  groups  when  speaking  was  over,  Lincoln 
learned  the  ways  and  manners  of  the  different 
communities  that  came  together,  weaving  their 
lines  of  limited  travel  to  and  fro  as  these  occa 
sions  came  and  went.  His  knowledge  of  human 
nature  and  of  the  plain  people,  already  very 
great,  was  wonderfully  increased  by  these  expe 
riences.  He  early  put  himself  on  record  as  op 
posed  to  the  further  extension  of  the  American 
system  of  human  slavery.  He  was  one  of  two 
signers  to  a  protest  on  the  subject  of  domestic 
slavery,  which  was  received  and  spread  on  the 
journals  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Illinois. 
The  backwoods  stories,  the  legends  of  Indian 
13 


194  STATESMEN 

fightings  and  superstitions,  the  folk-lore  of  a 
generation,  and  the  latest  political  and  social 
gossip  of  the  frontier  were  poured  into  the  re 
ceptive  mind  of  the  man  who  in  later  years  was 
to  be  a  thoroughly  equipped  master  of  human 
nature  as  human  nature  is  developed  in  the  life 
of  the  American  people. 

In  1846  he  was  elected  a  Representative  in 
Congress,  after  several  disappointments.  His 
competitor  on  the  Democratic  ticket  was  Peter 
Cartwright,  a  famous  backwoods  preacher  and 
exhorter,  whose  popularity  was  supposed  to  be 
so  great  that  Lincoln  would  be  literally  nowhere 
in  the  race ;  but  when  Lincoln  took  the  stump 
for  himself  he  had  plenty  of  material  for  his  ad 
dresses  to  the  people.  The  new  State  of  Texas 
had  been  just  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  the 
slavery  question  was  now  once  more  before  the 
people  for  adjustment.  One  of  the  first  acts  of 
his  Congressional  career,  which  was  not  an  es 
pecially  brilliant  one,  was  to  offer  a  series  of  res 
olutions  calling  on  the  President  (James  K.  Polk) 
to  inform  the  House  as  to  certain  facts  involved 
in  the  war  which  followed  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  Another  was  the  introduction  of  a  bill 
to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Thus  early  did  he  take  his  stand  on  the  burning 
question  which  was  destined  to  occupy  so  much 
of  his  life  and  energy  in  the  years  to  come. 

His  term  in  Congress  over,  he  sought  from  the 
new  Whig  President,  General  Taylor,  the  place 
of  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
where  he  hoped  to  make  useful  the  knowledge 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


195 


that  he  had  acquired  as  a  land-surveyor,  and  to 
help  carry  out  some  of  his  ambitious  schemes  for 
internal  improvements.  He  was  disappointed, 
and  later  on,  when  the  Territorial  Governorship 
of  Oregon  was  offered  to  him,  he  hesitated,  but 
finally  declined  it.  Returning  to  Springfield,  he 


The  Home  of  Lincoln  at  Springfield,  III. 

took  up  his  duties  as  an  attorney,  and  again 
plunged  into  politics,  when  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
bill  of  1854  roused  the  country  once  more  to  a 
sense  of  impending  danger  from  slavery.  It  was 
at  this  time  that  he  went  to  the  Eastern  States- 
one  of  the  few  liberal  Whigs  of  the  West — to 
support  the  nominees  for  the  party.  He  appeared 


196  STATESMEN 

to  look  with  disfavor  on  the  Free  Soil  party,  then 
coming  into  existence,  and  claimed  that  the  anti- 
slavery  proclivities  of  the  Whig  party  were  suf 
ficient  guaranty  that  that  organization-  would 
do  its  best  to  mollify  the  acerbities  of  the  con 
flict.  The  North  was  aflame  with  the  excite 
ment  which  followed  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  and  the  passage  of  Douglas's  Kan 
sas-Nebraska  bill.  Stephen  A.  Douglas  returned 
to  Illinois,  from  which  State  he  was  United  States 
Senator,  but  was  called  to  account  for  his  stew 
ardship.  He  made  a  speech  at  Springfield,  111., 
where,  for  the  first  time,  he  met  in  debate  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  who  was  to  be  his  most  dreaded 
adversary.  Douglas  spoke  to  the  people  in  justi 
fication  of  his  course  in  Congress  and  in  defence 
of  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill.  Next  day  Lincoln 
replied  to  Douglas,  and  all  accounts  agree  that 
his  was  a  wonderful  and  memorable  speech.  It 
was  in  this  speech  that  Lincoln  gave  one  of  his 
memorable  sayings.  When  replying  to  Douglas 
he  said :  "  I  admit  that  the  emigrant  to  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  is  competent  to  govern  himself, 
but  I  deny  his  right  to  govern  any  other  person 
without  that  person's  consent."  At  another  point 
in  his  speech  he  said  :  "  In  the  view  of  Judge 
Douglas,  the  question  whether  a  new  country 
shall  be  slave  or  free  is  a  matter  of  as  utter  indif 
ference  as  it  is  whether  his  neighbor  was  to  plant 
his  farm  with  tobacco  or  stock  it  with  horned 
cattle."  At  the  close  of  a  speech  in  Peoria,  111., 
Douglas  said  to  Lincoln :  "  You  understand  this 
question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territories 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  197 

better  than  all  the  opposition  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States.  1  cannot  make  anything  by  de 
bating  it  with  you.  You,  Lincoln,  have  here  and 
at  Springfield  given  me  more  trouble  than  all 
the  opposition  in  the  Senate  combined."  Doug 
las  appealed  to  Lincoln's  magnanimity  to  agree 
that  there  should  be  no  more  joint  discussions, 
and  to  this  Lincoln  reluctantly  assented. 

The  Legislature  elected  that  year  in  Illinois 
(in  1854)  was  to  choose  a  Senator  who  should  be 
a  colleague  with  Douglas.  When  the  election 
was  over  it  was  found  that  the  anti-Douglas  men 
were  in  a  majority,  but  they  were  not  united. 
Some  of  them  were  in  favor  of  Lyman  Trumbull 
and  some  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  after  ten  un 
successful  ballots  Lincoln  persuaded  his  friends 
to  vote  for  Trumbull,  who  was  thereupon  elected. 
This  generous  concession  on  the  part  of  Lincoln 
solidified  the  anti-Douglas  party  in  the  Legis 
lature,  and  was  greatly  praised  by  those  who 
knew  that  Trumbull  had  never  been  the  political 
friend  of  Lincoln,  but  usually  his  opponent  and 
unfriendly  critic. 

In  May,  1856,  the  Republican  party  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  was  born  in  a  convention  held 
at  Bloomington.  Lincoln's  advice  was  sought, 
and  he  said :  "  Let  us  in  building  our  new  party 
make  our  corner-stone  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  Let  us  build  on  this  rock,  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  us."  And 
Lincoln's  idea  was  embodied  in  this  resolution 
adopted  by  the  convention :  "  Resolved,  that  we 
hold,  in  accordance  with  the  opinions  and  prac- 


198  STATESMEN 

tices  of  all  the  great  statesmen  of  all  parties,  for 
the  first  sixty  years  of  the  administration  of  the 
government,  that  under  the  Constitution,  Con 
gress  possesses  full  power  to  prohibit  slavery  in 
the  Territories ;  and  that,  while  we  will  maintain 
all  constitutional  rights  of  the  South,  we  also 
hold  that  justice,  humanity,  the  principles  of 
freedom  as  expressed  in  our  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  and  our  National  Constitution,  and  the 
purity  and  perpetuity  of  our  government,  re 
quire  that  that  power  shall  be  exerted  to  prevent 
the  extension  of  slavery  into  Territories  here 
tofore  free."  In  the  election  which  followed, 
Buchanan  was  the  regular  Democratic  candidate, 
Douglas  having  been  defeated  in  the  nominating 
convention.  John  C.  Fremont  was  the  candi 
date  of  the  Republicans,  and  Millard  Fillmore 
of  a  third  party  known  as  the  American  party. 
The  campaign  was  virulent,  feverish,  and  excited. 
Lincoln  took  the  field  for  the  Republican  ticket, 
which  was,  however,  defeated — although  Bissell, 
the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor  of  Illi 
nois,  was  elected — the  electoral  vote  of  the  State 
being  given  to  Buchanan. 

Two  years  later,  when  the  Senatorial  term  of 
Douglas  was  drawing  to  a  close,  he  was  once 
more  pitted  against  Lincoln,  who  had  now  be 
come  the  leader  of  the  Republicans  of  his  own 
State.  They  refused  to  trust  Douglas,  and  in 
open  convention  declared  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  their  first  and  only  choice  for  the  United 
States  Senate  to  fill  the  vacancy  about  to  be  cre 
ated  by  the  expiration  of  Douglas's  term  of 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  199 

office.  The  two  candidates  now  took  the  field 
in  one  of  the  most  famous  political  contests  ever 
witnessed  in  this  country.  They  arranged  for  a 
series  of  joint  debates  at  different  points  through 
out  the  State.  When  Lincoln  read  the  manu 
script  of  his  speech  to  an  intimate  friend,  that 
gentleman  was  dismayed  by  finding  that  the 
key-note  of  the  speech  was  in  its  first  sentence : 
"  A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I 
believe  this  government  cannot  endure  perma 
nently  half  slave  and  half  free."  Lincoln's  friends 
urged  that  while  this  was  all  perfectly  true,  it 
would  be  hardly  discreet  to  make  so  bold  and 
radical  an  announcement  at  that  time.  People 
were  still  very  tender  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
and  the  epithets  "  Abolitionist "  and  "  Black 
Republican  "  were  freely  bandied,  much  to  the 
chagrin  of  the  followers  of  the  new  party.  De 
fending  his  phrase,  "  A  house  divided  against  it 
self,"  Lincoln  said  in  reply  :  "  This  proposition 
has  been  true  for  six  thousand  years.  I  will  de 
liver  the  speech  as  it  is  written."  And  he  did. 
In  the  course  of  that  address  he  said:  u  I  do  not 
expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved  ;  I  do  not  ex 
pect  the  house  to  fall ;  but  I  do  expect  it  will 
cease  to  be  divided :  it  will  become  all  one  thing 
or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it 
where  the  public  mind  will  rest  in  the  belief  that 
it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its 
advocates  will  push  it  forward  until  it  shall  be 
come  lawful  in  all  States,  old  as  well  as  new, 
North  as  well  as  South." 


200  STATESMEN 

This  wonderful  debate  attracted  multitudes  of 
people  far  and  wide.  Wherever  the  two  cham 
pions  appeared,  vast  throngs  of  people  congre 
gated  and  listened  with  delight,  or  cheered  with 
boisterous  enthusiasm  their  favorites  as  each 
made  what  they  considered  to  be  unanswerable 
arguments  against,  each  other.  Lincoln's  hercu 
lean  form  towered  far  above  the  audience  which 
he  addressed.  His  face  was  dark  and  seamed, 
his  eyes  deep -set  beneath  overhanging  and 
shaggy  brows ;  beardless  was  his  face,  and  a  far 
away  look  on  his  often-sad  features  at  times 
struck  even  casual  observers  as  profoundly  pa 
thetic.  But  his  manner,  when  he  was  alert,  was 
bright,  and  even  jovial,  and  in  speaking  he  im 
pressed  every  one  with  his  directness,  simplicity, 
good  sense,  clearness  of  statement,  wit  and  hu 
mor,  and  absolute  fairness. 

The  two  important  topics  before  the  country 
then  were  the  Dred  Scott  decision — by  which 
slavery  was  declared  to  be  constitutional  and 
right  and  lawful  in  the  Territories — and  the 
struggle  then  going  on  in  Kansas  between  Free- 
State  and  Slave-State  men.  Douglas's  favorite 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  was  to  the  effect 
that  the  people  in  the  Territories  had  the  right 
to  vote  slavery  up  or  down  as  they  liked  ;  but 
the  Dred  Scott  decision  of  Judge  Taney  was  to 
the  effect  that  slavery  was  already  in  the  Terri 
tories.  Obviously,  these  two  propositions  were 
irreconcilable.  It  was  Lincoln's  purpose  to  com 
pel  Douglas  to  say  whether  he  thought  slavery 
right  or  wrong  in  itself.  In  his  view  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  201 

Drcd  Scott  decision  and  the  Douglas  idea  of 
popular  sovereignty  could  not  be  held  together 
in  one  man's  belief.  So  he  framed  questions  de 
signed  to  bring  the  matter  before  Douglas  in 
such  a  shape  as  to  oblige  him  to  admit  or  deny 
the  abstract  right  of  slavery.  Lincoln's  friends 
remonstrated  with  him.  "  If  you  put  that  ques 
tion  to  him,"  they  said,  "  he  will  perceive  that  the 
answer,  giving  practical  force  and  effect  to  the 
Dred  Scott  decision  in  the  Territories,  inevitably 
loses  him  the  battle,  and  he  will  therefore  reply  by 
offering  the  decision  as  an  abstract  principle,  but 
denying  its  practical  application.  He  will  say 
that  the  decision  is  just  and  right,  but  it  is  not  to 
be  put  into  force  and  effect  in  the  Territories." 
"  If  he  takes  that  chute,"  said  Lincoln,  "  he  can 
never  be  President."  Lincoln's  anxious  friends 
replied,  "  That  is  not  your  lookout ;  you  are 
after  the  Senatorship."  "  No,  gentlemen,"  he 
said,  "  I  am  killing  larger  game.  The  battle  of 
1860  is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  It  is  barely 
possible  that  Lincoln  even  then  saw  so  far  ahead 
as  to  think  he  might  be  the  Republican  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency  in  1860;  but  the  chances 
are  that  he  was  thinking  of  the  battle  for  freedom 
and  not  of  himself.  For  his  time  had  not  yet 
come.  Douglas  was  elected  United  States  Sena 
tor,  although  the  number  of  votes  polled  in  the 
election  for  members  of  the  Legislature  were  more 
in  Lincoln's  favor  than  in  Douglas's  ;  but  as  there 
were  certain  hold-over  Senators  whose  votes  were 
to  be  counted  in  the  election  of  United  States 
Senator,  the  real  victory  rested  with  Douglas. 


202 


8TA  TESMEN 


From 
figure  of 
champion 
The  joint 
the  West, 
wherever 


lat  contest  emerged  the  great,  majestic 
Abraham  Lincoln,  easily  the  leader  and 

of  the  Free-Soil  party  of  the  West, 
debate  attracted  attention  not  only  in 

but  all  over  the  United  States,  and 
the  political  situation  was  discussed 


The  St.  Gauden's  Statue  of  Lincoln  at  Lincoln   Park,  Chicago. 

there  was  heard  the  name  of  Lincoln.  His 
greatest  power  as  a  debater  was  the  charm  of  his 
individuality.  His  voice  was  rather  high  and 
shrill,  his  figure  awkward,  and  his  movements 
ungraceful ;  but  the  strong  sympathetic  ele 
ment  that  dominated  his  nature  was  always 
perceptible  through  everything  he  said  or  did. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  203 

He  was  pre-eminently  a  man  of  the  people,  the 
people's  advocate  ;  he  was  of  "  the  plain  people." 
He  understood  their  joys,  their  sorrows,  their 
hopes,  their  ambitions.  He  entered  more  fully 
into  their  sympathies  than  any  public  man  who 
ever  lived,  and  as  the  contest  drew  on  when  the 
last  battle  in  the  field  of  politics  should  be  fought 
between  freedom  and  slavery,  he  gradually  be 
came  the  people's  champion  as  against  a  great 
wrong,  rather  than  the  champion  and  advocate 
of  any  great  moral  or  political  principle.  From 
this  time  forth  wre  must  recognize  him  as  speak 
ing  always  in  the  capacity  of  an  attorney  for  the 
people.  Not  only  here,  but  later  on,  when  the 
war  for  the  Union  had  begun,  and  when  it  was 
at  its  height,  he  always  aimed  to  be  the  agent 
and  the  instrument  of  the  people. 

The  Republicans  of  Illinois  at  their  annual 
convention,  in  May,  1859,  formally  presented 
Lincoln  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
in  1860.  During  the  convention  some  of  the 
pioneers  or  earlier  settlers  of  the  State  made 
their  entry  into  the  hall  of  the  convention  with 
the  announcement  that  a  Macon  County  Demo 
crat  had  a  contribution  at  the  door.  The  curi 
osity  of  the  delegates  was  stimulated  and  they 
looked  to  see  two  ancient  fence-rails,  decorated 
with  ribbons  of  red,  white,  and  blue,  borne  into 
the  hall  by  Thomas  Hanks,  on  the  rails  being 
the  inscription,  "  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Rail 
Candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1860.  Two 
rails  from  a  lot  of  three  thousand  made  in  1830 
by  Thomas  Hanks  and  Abe  Lincoln,  whose 


204  STATESMEN 

father  was  the  first  pioneer  in  Macon  County." 
Years  afterward,  Lincoln  being  asked  if  he 
supposed  those  \vere  the  real  rails  that  he  and 
Hanks  had  made,  said :  "  I  would  not  make 
an  affidavit  that  they  were  ;  but  Hanks  and  I 
did  make  rails  on  that  piece  of  gr-ound,  although 
I  think  I  could  make  better  rails  now,  and  I  did 
say  that  if  there  were  any  rails  that  we  had  split, 
I  should  not  wonder  if  those  were  the  rails." 
This  was  as  near  to  verifying  the  authenticity 
of  those  celebrated  rails  as  Lincoln  was  Avilling 
to  go,  and  it  may  be  added  that  he  profoundly 
disapproved  of  the  whole  proceeding. 

Early  in  1860,  Lincoln  was  invited  to  speak  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  but  the  place  of  assembly  was 
finally  changed  to  Cooper  Union,  New  York, 
one  of  the  largest  halls  in  the  United  States, 
which  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  a  tremen 
dous  crowd  of  people  anxious  to  hear  the  noted 
orator  from  the  West.  It  is  a  matter  of  record 
that  when  he  rose  to  speak  the  people  were  dis 
appointed.  He  was  ill-dressed  ;  his  bushy  head, 
with  the  stiff,  black  hair  thrown  back,  was  bal 
anced  on  a  long,  lean  head-stalk,  and  when  he 
raised  his  hands  in  an  opening  gesture,  the  im 
pression  he  gave  was  one  of  great  awkwardness. 
The  tones  of  his  voice  at  first  were  low  and 
husky,  and  a  visible  expression  of  dismay  spread 
over  the  face  of  his  audience  ;  but  very  soon 
he  roused  himself,  and  as  the  magic  of  his  elo 
quence  flowed  out,  men  forgot  his  appearance, 
and  the  man  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  orator.  It 
may  be  said  that  this  speech  not  only  was  brill- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  205 

iantly  successful  as  an  eloquent  exposition  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Republican  party,  but  it  gave 
Lincoln  great  and  instant  vogue  throughout  the 
older  States  of  the  Union.  His  theme  was  a  say 
ing  of  Douglas,  "  Our  fathers  when  they  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live  understood 
the  question  (the  question  of  slavery)  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  now."  His  speech 
was  an  inquiry  into  what  the  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  thought  and  did  about  slavery, 
and  all  who  heard  that  address  marvelled  great 
ly  at  its  logic,  its  keen  analysis,  and  its  lucid  and 
unimpeachable  English.  The  audience  a\  times 
was  swept  by  a  whirlwind  of  applause. 

The  time  for  holding  the  Republican  National 
Convention  drew  on,  and  that  body  assembled  in 
Chicago,  June  17,  1860.  The  candidates  named 
were  William  H.  Seward,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
Simon  Cameron,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Edward 
Bates,  and  John  McLean.  Seward  was  at  first 
the  leading  candidate,  but  the  enthusiasm  in 
the  galleries  and  in  the  crowds  that  surrounded 
the  vast  building  where  the  convention  was 
held  was  probably  a  factor  in  the  influences 
that  ultimately  compelled  the  nomination  of 
Lincoln.  He  was  nominated  on  the  third  bal 
lot,  a  large  majority  of  the  anti-Seward  men 
finally  going  over  to  Lincoln  and  making  his 
nomination  a  certainty.  The  liberal  wing  of 
the  Democratic  party  nominated  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  and  the  extreme  pro-slavery  wing  nom 
inated  John  C.  Breckinridge.  The  campaign 
that  followed  was  conducted  with  tremendous 


206  STATESMEN 

and  sincere  enthusiasm  on  the  anti-slavery  side, 
while  the  Democrats,  divided  between  Douglas 
and  Breckinridge,  fought  in  a  half-hearted  way, 
and  Lincoln  was  elected  President  by  a  majority 
of  fifty-seven  electoral  votes.  Almost  as  soon  as 
this  result  was  announced  several  of  the  States 
announced  their  intention  to  leave  the  Union. 


Stephen  A.   Douglas. 

The  ordinance  of  secession  was  adopted  by 
South  Carolina,  November  17,  1860;  by  Missis 
sippi,  January  9,  1861  ;  Florida,  January  loth; 
Alabama,  February  nth;  Georgia,  January 
iQth ;  Louisiana,  January  25th,  and  Texas,  Feb 
ruary  ist,  and  by  the  time  Lincoln  was  ready 
to  leave  Springfield  for  Washington  to  take 
the  oath  of  office,  seven  States  had  declared 
themselves  out  of  the  Union. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  207 

His  inaugural  address  was  an  argument  and  a 
plea.  Among  other  things  he  said  :  "  The  power 
confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and 
possess  the  property  and  places  belonging  to  the 
government.'*  This  was  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  opinion  of  the  "  anti-coercionists,"  as  they 
were  called,  who  said  that  the  forts  and  military 
posts  and  navy-yards  in  the  Southern  States  be 
longed  to  the  seceding  States  as  "  their  share  " 
of  the  property  of  the  government.  He  also 
argued  against  the  possibility  of  complete  sepa 
ration,  saying  :  "  Physically  speaking,  we  cannot 
separate ;  we  cannot  remove  our  respective  sec 
tions  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassable 
wall  between  them."  And  while  he  showed 
that  they  must  remain  face  to  face,  either  as 
friends  or  enemies,  and  it  would  be  more  to  the 
advantage  of  both  that  they  should  make  their 
intercourse  that  of  friends  than  as  aliens,  he 
argued  that  the  whole  matter  in  dispute  should 
be  left  to  all  the  people.  He  said  :  "  While  the 
people  retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  ad 
ministration,  by  any  extreme  wickedness  or  folly, 
can  very  seriously  injure  the  government  in  the 
short  space  of  four  years."  Throughout  his 
speech  he  pleaded  earnestly  for  union,  peace, 
and  harmony ;  but  these  arguments,  it  must  be 
said,  were  addressed  rather  to  the  North  than 
to  the  South.  He  desired  that  people  should 
see  that  no  reasonable  concession  would  be  neg 
lected  and  no  entreaty  unspoken  to  win  back 
and  keep  in  the  Union  the  wayward  children  of 
the  South.  In  the  kindest  language  he  showed 


208 


STATESMEN 


how  ill-advised  secession  must  be,  and  asked  that 
for  their  own  sakes  the  secessionists  should  de 
sist  from  carrying  out  their  mad  plans.  He  in 
sisted  that  while  it  was  not  their  duty  to  destroy 
the  Union,  it  was  his  duty  to  preserve  it,  and 
while  he  hoped  to  do  this  without  war  or  blood- 


Gideon  Welles. 

shed,  he  declared  with  emphasis  that  it  was  his 
fixed  purpose  to  do  his  whole  duty  by  the  whole 
country. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that  in  the  making-up  of 
the  Cabinet  four  of  the  seven  members  thereof 
had  been  candidates  for  the  Presidential  nomina 
tion  at  Chicago.  William  H.  Seward  was  Secre- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  209 

tary  of  State ;  Simon  Cameron,  Secretary  of 
War ;  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  ;  Gideon  Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy ; 
Montgomery  Blair,  Postmaster-General ;  Caleb 
B.  Smith,  Secretary  of  the  Interior ;  Edward 
Bates,  Attorney-General. 

Lincoln's  supposed  rawness,  his  unfamiliarity 
with  statecraft,  and  his  Western  habits  were  by 
many  believed  to  unfit  him  for  the  higher  duties 
of  statesmanship.  More  than  one  of  his  consti 
tutional  advisers  was  willing  to  take  the  respon 
sibility  of  shaping  the  policy  of  the  administra 
tion  and  carrying  out  plans  for  the  solution  of 
the  appalling  situation  now  forced  upon  the 
country.  Mr.  Seward,  for  example,  proposed  to 
divert  the  attention  of  the  people  from  the 
threatened  war  in  the  South  by  provoking  a 
series  of  foreign  wars  with  other  powers  wrho 
had  perhaps  given  occasion  for  offence.  But 
with  great  calmness,  Lincoln  took  into  his  own 
hands  the  direction  of  affairs,  and  as  "the  attor 
ney  for  the  people  of  the  United  States,"  he  now 
began  to  organize  ways  and  means,  assisted  by 
the  members  of  his  Cabinet,  to  crush  the  Re 
bellion. 

From  this  time  forward  he  was  steadily  actu 
ated  by  but  one  purpose  —  to  save  the  Union. 
For  this  he  said  he  would  sacrifice  everything 
else ;  he  would  save  the  Union  with  slavery  or 
without  it,  he  would  save  the  Union  by  war  or 
without  war,  he  would  save  the  Union  by  using 
civil  and  military  power,  or  he  would  save  it  by 
laying  aside  those  powers  so  far  as  was  practi- 
14 


210  STATESMEN 

cable ;  and  the  words  most  frequent  on  his  lips 
were,  "  The  Rebellion  by  all  means  to  crush." 
In  the  conduct  of  the  war  which  followed  he 
constantly  deferred  to  the  wishes  of  the  people, 
and  when  many  of  the  more  radical  members  of 
the  Republican  party  urged  an  immediate  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves,  or  similar  measures,  he 
put  them  aside  with  various  excuses;  and  al 
though  he  incurred  their  dislike,  if  not  their  en 
mity,  by  his  apparently  too  conservative  course, 
he  persisted  in  waiting  until  the  time  was  ripe, 
never  hurrying  events,  but  always  listening  for 
the  voice  of  the  people.  On  one  occasion,  after 
McClellan  had  ceased  for  some  time  to  be  com 
mander  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  Lincoln 
said  to  the  writer  of  these  lines:  "I  kept  Mc 
Clellan  in  command  long  after  I  had  ceased  to 
expect  that  he  would  win  any  victories,  simply 
because  I  knew  that  his  dismissal  would  provoke 
popular  indignation  and  shake  the  faith  of  the 
people  in  the  final  success  of  the  war."  And  if 
Lincoln  had  any  fixed  and  individual  opinions 
about  the  smaller  details  of  the  conduct  of  the 
war,  he  never  forced  them  upon  the  public  or 
upon  those  who  were  entrusted  with  the  direc 
tion  of  military  affairs.  He  was  so  deferential 
and  so  ready  to  accept  the  judgment  of  those 
whom  he  believed  to  be  superior  to  him  in  tech 
nical  knowledge,  that  he  sometimes  provoked 
others  who  had  great  faith  in  his  administrative 
abilities,  and  possibly  in  his  military  knowledge ; 
but  at  all  times,  by  his  vigor,  his  firmness,  and 
his  unshrinking  determination,  Lincoln  showed 


The  National  Lincoln  Monument  at  Springfield,  III. 


212  STATESMEN 

the  world  that  he,  and  not  another,  was  the  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States. 

He  knew  that  "  the  plain  people  "  were  ready 
from  the  first  to  fight  in  defence  of  the  Union  ; 
he  knew  that  they  were  not  at  first  ready  to  fight 
for  the  destruction  of  slavery  ;  and  so  he  perpet 
ually  put  off  every  movement  that  was  designed 
to  promote  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  called 
constantly  for  soldiers  to  defend  the  Union.  He 
even  went  so  far  as  to  countermand  the  orders 
of  some  of  the  generals  in  the  field  who  were 
willing  to  hasten  the  day  of  emancipation.  It  is 
possible  that  he  may  have  seen  the  ultimate 
effect  of  this  policy ;  it  is  certain  that  if  the 
armies  of  the  Union  had  early  crushed  the  Re 
bellion,  slavery  would  have  been  saved.  But 
the  events  of  the  war,  overruled  by  the  hand  of 
Providence,  prolonged  the  struggle  beyond  all 
expectation,  and  finally  made  the  further  exist 
ence  of  slavery  an  impossibility.  In  the  long 
contest  that  followed,  the  strongholds  of  slavery 
were  one  by  one  demolished,  and  at  last,  by  the 
Emancipation  proclamation  issued  by  the  Presi 
dent,  and  later  ratified  by  the  action  of  Congress, 
the  death-blow  was  dealt  to  that  institution. 

On  July  21,  1862,  Lincoln's  Cabinet  was  as 
tonished  when  he  laid  before  them  the  out 
line  of  a  proclamation  declaring  free  the  slaves 
of  all  the  States  that  should  be  in  rebellion 
against  the  United  States  on  January  i,  1863. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
that  this  blow  was  inevitable,  and  the  only  ques 
tion  in  his  mind  was  when  it  should  fall,  and  it 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  213 

was  to  ask  the  advice  of  his  Cabinet  that  he  laid 
before  them  this  document.  At  the  suggestion 
of  Secretary  Seward  the  issuing  of  the  proc 
lamation  was  deferred  for  a  time,  as  just  then 
disaster  and  defeat  had  met  the  armies  in  almost 
every  direction,  and  Seward  thought  that  such  a 
proclamation  would  then  sound  like  "  the  last 
shriek  of  a  perishing  cause."  The  proclamation 
was  postponed.  Other  defeats  followed,  and 
when  Lee  invaded  Maryland,  just  before  the  bat 
tle  of  Antietam,  Lincoln  made  a  vow  that  if  the 
Union  army  should  now  be  blessed  with  success, 
the  decree  of  freedom  should  be  proclaimed. 
The  victory  of  Antietam  was  won  on  September 
17,  1862,  and  the  Emancipation  proclamation  was 
issued  on  the  22d  of  that  month.  After  so  many 
years,  slavery  was  dead. 

There  were  yet  other  disasters  in  the  field,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  had 
been  fought  and  the  citadel  of  Vicksburg  taken 
that  men  began  to  see  the  day  breaking.  States 
men  and  politicians  worried  the  good  President 
with  their  plans  for  reconstructing  the  Union, 
and  with  their  objections  to  his  plans.  They 
found  fault  with  his  readiness  to  adapt  himself 
to  differing  conditions  in  different  States  where 
the  Federal  authority  had  been  re-established, 
and  they  found  fault  with  the  way  in  which  he 
put  these  things  before  the  people.  For  example, 
one  night,  when  he  had  addressed  a  crowd  of 
cheering  people  who  had  come  to  greet  him  at 
the  White  House  after  a  famous  victory  by 
Grant,  he  made  use  of  the  phrase  "  The  rebels 


2U  STATESMEN 

turned  tail  and  ran."  Not  long  afterward,  when 
he  was  to  make  a  more  extended  address,  I  was 
invited  by  him  to  be  near  him  at  the  historic 
window  in  the  White  House  whence  he  was  used 
to  speak  to  the  people.  Noting-  my  look  of  sur 
prise  at  the  roll  of  manuscript  he  had  in  his  hand, 
just  before  we  left  the  parlor  for  the  upper  part 
of  the  house  he  said  :  "  It  is  true  that  I  don't  usu 
ally  read  a  speech,  but  I  am  going  to  say  some 
thing  to-night  that  may  be  important.  I  am  go 
ing  to  talk  about  reconstruction,  and  sometimes 
I  am  betrayed  into  saying  things  that  other  peo 
ple  don't  like.  In  a  little  off-hand  talk  I  made 
the  other  day  I  used  the  phrase  '  Turned  tail 
and  ran.'  A  gentleman  from  Boston  was  very 
much  offended  by  that,  and  I  hope  he  won't  be 
offended  again."  On  the  way  upstairs  the  Presi 
dent  turned  to  me  and  said,  with  a  queer  smile : 
"  The  gentleman  from  Boston  was  Senator  Sum- 
ner."  The  speech  that  night  was  a  justification 
of  what  had  been  done  in  Louisiana  by  way  of 
reconstruction,  a  provisional  government  having 
been  evolved  from  the  military  government  that 
had  been  set  up  after  the  occupation  of  the  State 
by  the  Federal  forces.  In  the  course  of  his  ad 
dress,  whi-ch  was  clearly  not  what  the  vast  and 
jubilant  crowd  had  expected,  Lincoln  said  :  "  We 
shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the  egg 
than  by  smashing  it."  But  Sumner  was  no  better 
pleased  with  this  than  with  the  other  figure  of 
speech  ;  for,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Lieber  next  day, 
he  said :  "  The  President's  speech  and  other 
things  augur  confusion  and  uncertainty  in  the 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  215 

future,  with  hot  controversy.  Alas  !  alas!  "  And 
in  his  tribute  to  Senator  Collamer,  later  in  that 
year  (1865),  Sumner  said:  "  The  eggs  of  croco 
diles  can  produce  only  crocodiles,  and  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  how  eggs  laid  by  military  power  can 
be  hatched  into  an  American  State." 

But  in  all  these  things  the  people  loved  and 
trusted  Lincoln.  They  looked  to  him  as  their 
father.  The  quaint  title  "  Father  Abraham  " 
with  them  meant  something  more  than  a  hu 
morous  nickname.  They  knew  that  he  wept 
with  them  and  laughed  with  them,  that  he  sor 
rowed  in  their  sorrows  and  entered  into  their 
affairs  almost  like  a  providence.  The  hold  he 
had  upon  the  people  was  not  so  much  by 
virtue  of  a  commanding  intellect  and  a  super 
nal  eloquence  (though  these  were  also  his), 
as  rather  by  virtue  of  his  loving  and  tender 
heart,  his  profound  sympathy  with  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men,  his  unfailing  patience, 
magnanimity,  and  good  nature,  his  abounding 
charity  for  all,  and  above  all,  his  homely  like 
ness  to  the  plain  people  from  whom  he  sprung, 
and  of  whom  he  was  one  to  the  last  day  of  his 
life. 

Lincoln  was  renominated  and  re-elected  in 
the  midst  of  the  closing  struggles  of  the  civil 
war.  This  was  the  final  test  of  his  power  with 
the  people.  There  had  been  some  factious  op 
position  to  his  renomination.  He  had  been 
opposed  in  the  national  canvass  by  a  military 
commander,  McClellan ;  and  when  his  hour  of 
victory  came  it  was  by  an  overwhelming  and 


216  STATESMEN 

tremendous  popular  vote,  that  left  in  the  minds 
of  men  no  question  of  the  undying"  and  deeply 
rooted  love  of  the  American  people  for  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  In  this  day  of  triumph  a  lesser 
man  than  he  would  have  exulted  over  those 
of  his  own  political  faith  who  were  thus  de 
livered  into  his  hand.  But  his  great  and  mag 
nanimous  soul  held  no  thought  of  unkindness 
for  those  who  had  wounded  him  so  deeply. 
Serenaded  at  the  White  House  on  the  night 
next  succeeding  the  November  election  of  1864, 
he  said  :  "  Now  that  the  election  is  over,  may 
not  all,  having  a  common  interest,  reunite  in 
a  common  effort  to  save  our  common  country  ? 
For  my  own  part,  I  have  striven,  and  will  strive, 
to  place  no  obstacle  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I 
have  been  here,  I  have  not  willingly  planted  a 
thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am  deep 
ly  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of  a  re-elec 
tion,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that 
any  other  man  may  be  pained  or  disappointed 
by  the  result.  May  I  ask  those  who  were  with 
me  to  join  with  me  in  the  same  spirit  toward 
those  who  were  against  us  ?  " 

Lincoln's  second  inaugural  address  should  be 
read  with  the  first,  if  one  would  study  the  results 
wrought  out  in  Lincoln's  mind  by  four  years  of 
stress  and  strain  as  the  head  of  the  nation  dur 
ing  a  civil  war.  There  are  passages  in  this 
second  inaugural  address  that  are  matchless 
in  English  literature.  He  was  no  longer  the 
father  plaintively  pleading  with  wayward  chil 
dren  who  insisted  upon  fighting  ;  he  was  rather 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  217 

the  elder  brother  lamenting  the  loss  and  woe 
which  their  headstrong  acts  had  brought  upon 
the  people.  He  poured  out  the  tenderness  and 
devotion  of  his  great  soul  in  these  closing  words : 
"  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass 
away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until 
all  the  wealth  piled  up  by  the  bondsman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall 
be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn 
with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  by 
the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago, 
so  still  it  must  be  said,  that  '  the  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 
With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all, 
with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to 
see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work 
AVC  are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds,  to 
care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle, 
and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphans,  to  do  all 
which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  last 
ing  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  na 
tions."  Well  may  it  be  said,  "  No  American 
President  had  ever  spoken  words  like  these 
to  the  American  people.  America  never  had 
a  President  who  found  such  words  in  the  depths 
of  his  heart." 

Now  came  the  closing  scenes  of  the  war. 
Lee's  army  surrendered  to  Grant,  and  peace 
was  assured.  The  people  went  wild  with  joy ; 
bonfires  and  illuminations  lighted  up  the  North 
ern  sky,  and  the  city  of  Washington  was  a  blaze 
of  light,  as  cannon  boomed  their  warlike  notes 


218 


STATESMEN 


to  proclaim  that  the  war  was  over.  In  the  midst 
of  this  jubilation,  our  people  were  stunned  by  the 
announcement  that  the  good  President  had  fallen 
in  the  national  capital,  stricken  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin.  No  words  can  picture  the  grief  of  the 
nation  as  these  appalling  tidings  went  forth. 
As  by  magic  the  scene  was  changed  from  one 
of  festivity  and  joy  to  one  of  mourning  and 


House  where  Lincoln  Died  in  Washington — 516  Tenth   Street,  N.  W. 

lamentation.  But  the  man  and  the  hour  had 
come  and  gone.  The  American  Union  was 
saved,  slavery  was  destroyed,  and  peace  at 
last  brooded  over  a  long-distracted  and  bleed 
ing  country.  His  work  done,  Lincoln's  life 
less  form  was  carried  to  his  home  in  Spring 
field,  111.,  where  it  was  laid  in  the  earth  with 
many  tears.  The  attorney  for  the  people,  as 
he  always  called  himself,  had  prosecuted  the 
cause  entrusted  to  his  hands.  Trained  as  he 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  219 

had  been  in  the  hard  school  of  poverty  and 
adversity,  he  had  learned  lessons  of  self-reliance 
and  self-denial ;  he  had  learned  the  real  value  of 
human  freedom,  and  had  slowly  absorbed  into 
every  fibre  of  his  being  the  principles  that  lie 
at  the  foundation  of  human  liberty  and  of  self- 
government.  His  mission  was  ended. 

They  who  complain,  as  certain  analysts  have 
complained,  that  Lincoln's  character,  so  strangely 
and  weirdly  mixed,  is  a  mystery,  may  rest  in  the 
belief  that  all  great  geniuses  are  mysterious. 
Shakespeare  is  a  mystery  so  profound  that  men 
have  been  put  to  the  rash  expedient  of  insisting 
that  there  was  no  real  personality  in  that  name. 
The  subtle  processes  of  mind  by  which  a  great 
genius  like  Lincoln  arrives  at  conclusions,  divines 
men's  motives  and  foresees  events  from  afar, 
frames  heaven-born  truths  in  matchless  words,  or 
utters  sayings  of  the  profoundest  wisdom,  can 
never  be  understood  by  other  men.  It  is  useless 
to  waste  words  in  attempting  any  divination  of 
the  secret.  It  is  even  possible  that  the  pos 
sessor  of  these  rare  gifts  cannot  himself  under 
stand  them.  Lincoln  was  to  the  last  degree  a 
reticent  man.  Although  he  had. a  certain  free- 
and-easy,  broad  manner  of  meeting  friendly  ap 
proaches,  there  was  in  his  nature  a  line  beyond 
which  not  even  his  closest  intimates  could  pass. 
None  could  be  made  uncomfortable  by  the  feel 
ing  that  he  was  repelled  or  excluded  from  that 
intimacy;  but,  with  all  his  geniality  and  free 
dom  of  manner,  he  was  never  confiding  of  his 
innermost  thoughts  and  emotions.  Perhaps 


220  STATESMEN 

this  reserve  deepened  the  mystery  of  his  being. 
It  certainly  did  veil  the  inner  recesses  of  his 
character. 

He  was  more  ambitious  than  most  of  the  men 
of  his  time  gave  him  credit  for.  I  am  convinced 
that  he  dreamed  of  the  Presidency  long  before 
destiny  and  the  people's  choice  had  turned  his 
face  in  the  direction  of  the  White  House.  He 
was  conscious  of  power  within  himself  very 
early  in  his  political  career.  But  he  was  wise 
and  shrewd — shrewd  almost  to  the  point  of  cun 
ning.  Nobody  better  than  he  knew  how  to  veil 
his  purposes  while  he  yet  held  these  in  abeyance. 
If  he  "  fooled  "  his  advisers  and  petitioners  while 
he  put  off  and  again  put  off  his  action,  it  was 
that  he  might  be  absolutely  sure  of  the  step  before 
he  took  it.  Once  taken,  there  never  was  a  back 
ward  movement.  Never  for  a  moment  relax 
ing  his  intention  to  do,  he  waited  with  a  patience 
that  was  immovable  the  ripeness  of  the  time  and 
the  readiness  of  the  people  to  go  with  him  to  the 
end  of  the  thing  to  be  done.  Although  he  ap 
peared  to  be  led,  he  constantly  and  artfully  and 
subtly  led. 

To  the  last  his  manners  were  simple,  unaf 
fected,  and  free  from  even  the  appearance  of 
self-conscious  greatness.  When  touched  in  his 
manly  dignity,  he  showed  his  resentment;  and 
at  times,  when  he  had  been  too  long  subjected  to 
the  worry  and  strain  of  the  duties  of  his  place, 
he  was  humanly  irritable  and  even  captious. 
Once,  when  a  visitor  had  exhausted  his  patience 
with  his  profanity,  he  rose  and,  with  awful  dig- 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  221 

nity,  motioned  the  offender  through  the  opened 
door.  And  at  another  time,  when  one  of  his 
dearest  friends  had  been  maligned  in  a  memorial 
laid  before  him,  he  asked  if  the  paper  were  his  to 
treat  as  he  pleased,  and  answered  affirmatively, 
he  calmly  laid  the  document  on  the  burning 
coals  in  the  grate  and  bade  the  delegates  good- 
morning. 

The  folk-lore,  the    multitudinous    stories    ab- 


Death-mask  of  Lincoln. 


sorbed  in  the  years  of  his  roving  frontier  life, 
were  of  inestimable  value  to  Lincoln  ;  and  these 
are  popularly  associated  in  any  view  of  his  life 
and  character.  But  he  seldom  told  a  story  for 
the  mere  sake  of  telling  it.  Invariably,  the  anec 
dote,  the  incident,  the  humorsome  jest  had  pith 
and  point.  Taken  from  the  setting  that  Lincoln 
gave  it,  it  was  merely  funny  ;  as  he  gave  it,  it 
was  the  barbed  arrow  that  sent  the  argument  or 
saying  home.  This  has  been  excellently  de- 


222  STATESMEN 

scribed  by  Emerson,  who,  in  his  funeral  address 
at  Concord,  said :  "  He  is  the  author  of  a  multi 
tude  of  good  sayings,  so  disguised  as  pleasant 
ries  that  it  is  certain  that  they  had  no  reputation 
at  first  but  as  jests;  and  only  later,  by  the  very 
acceptance  and  adoption  they  find  in  the  mouths 
of  millions,  turn  out  to  be  the  wisdom  of  the 
hour.  I  am  sure  if  this  man  had  ruled  in  a 
period  of  less  facility  of  printing,  he  would  have 
become  mythological  in  a  very  few  years,  like 
^Esop  or  Pilpay,  or  one  of  the  Seven  Wise  Mas 
ters,  by  his  fables  and  proverbs." 

Whatever  were  his  limitations,  and  these  were 
apparent  to  those  who  knew  him,  Lincoln  was 
fully  equal  to  the  time  in  which  he  lived  and  to 
the  vast  burden  that  he.  lifted  and  carried  with 
giant  ease  and  strength.  The  tragicalness,  the 
needlessness,  so  to  speak,  of  his  taking-off  will 
always  remain  to  mortal  eyes  inexplicable.  Why 
he  should  not  have  been  permitted  to  live  and 
enjoy  the  well-earned  fruits  of  four  years  of 
strenuous  labor,  why  he  should  have  been  al 
lowed  only  to  look  over  into  the  Promised  Land 
of  Peace  from  the  Pisgah  summit  of  those  last  sad 
days,  we  may  not  know.  Somewhere  in  God's 
eternal  plan  that  noble,  self-denying  soul  lives 
and  rejoices  in  its  strength.  And  even  we,  dis 
consolately  lamenting  his  unrewarded  years  of 
toil,  may  find  some  consolation  in  the  thought 
that  in  the  vast  movements  of  humanity  in  which 
nations  and  individuals  are  insignificant  factors, 
the  life  of  Lincoln  was  long  enough  to  serve  its 
majestic  mission. 


The   Statue  of  Sumner,  by  Thomas  Ball,  in  the   Public  Garden,  Boston. 


VIII. 

CHARLES   SUMNER. 

IN  October,  1850,  Charles  Sumner  delivered  a 
wonderful  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston.  This 
was  at  the  important  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  American  politics  when  old  parties  were  dis 
solving,  and  from  their  elements  were  rising  the 
two  great  parties  (for  there  were  really  only 
two)  that  were  to  stand  arrayed  against  each 
other  until  the  civil  war  should  destroy  slavery 
and  open  another  epoch  in  the  history  of  civil 
ization.  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  sit  within  a 
few  feet  of  the  rostrum,  at  a  reporters'  table, 
looking  up  at  the  young  Apollo,  who  towered 
like  a  demigod  at  an  immense  height  over  us.  I 
remember  one  reporter,  who,  fascinated  by  the 
sight,  looked  up  and  breathlessly  said  :  "  Great 
God  !  that  man  seems  twenty  feet  high  !  " 

His  personal  appearance  was  not  only  one  of 
extreme  elegance — for  he  was  always  dressed 
with  scrupulous  care — but  of  magnificent  and 
manly  proportions.  He  was  six  feet  and  two 
inches  high,  well  formed,  with  a  magnificent  head 
of  hair,  dark,  lustrous  eyes,  perfect  teeth,  and 
features  that  might  be  called  Romanesque.  His 
gestures  were  large  and  sweeping,  his  voice  res 
onant  and  musical,  but  without  any  such  great 


224  STA  TESMEN 

compass  as  that  of  Wendell  Phillips  or  Henry 
Clay,  both  of  whom  he  somewhat  resembled  in 
his  general  style  of  oratory.  One  of  his  biog 
raphers  has  given  this  account  of  his  appearance 
at  the  age  of  twenty-two :  "  He  was  tall  and 
gaunt,  weighing  only  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds ;  his  hair  was  dark  brown,  his  eyes  hazel 
and  inflamed  by  excessive  use ;  his  face  sharp- 
featured  ;  his  teeth  gleaming  with  whiteness ;  his 
complexion  dark  and  not  clear ;  his  visage  and 
person  not  attractive  to  the  eye,  and  far  unlike 
his  presence  in  later  life,  when,  with  full  propor 
tions  and  classic  features,  he  arrested  attention 
in  the  Senate  and  on  the  street.  .  .  .  His 
voice  was  strong,  clear,  and  sonorous ;  his  coun 
tenance  was  lighted  up  with  expression,  and  his 
genial  smile  won  friends  upon  an  introduction. 
His  spirits  were  buoyant  in  company,  and  his 
laugh  was  loud  and  hearty."  I  have  said  that  he 
was  careful  in  his  attire.  This  habit  stuck  to  him 
through  life,  and  even  when  he  was  an  under 
graduate  of  Harvard  he  refused  to  conform  to 
the  rules  of  dress  prescribed  by  the  faculty,  and 
persisted  in  wearing  a  buff-colored  waistcoat,  for 
which  he  received  an  "  admonition  for  illegal 
dress."  As  to  his  height,  an  amusing  incident 
is  related  by  B.  P.  Poore,  who  says:  "  On  Lin 
coln's  arrival  in  Washington,  shortly  before  his 
inauguration,  in  1861,  he  met  Sumner  for  the  first 
time.  Lincoln  said  :  '  Sumner  declined  to  stand 
up  with  me  back  to  back  to  see  which  was  the 
taller  man,  and  made  a  fine  speech  about  this 
being  the  time  for  uniting  our  fronts  against  the 


CHARLES  SUMNER  225 

enemy  and  not  our  backs ;  but  I  guess  he  was 
afraid  to  measure  them.  He  is  a  good  piece  of  a 
man.  I  had  never  had  much  to  do  with  bishops 
where  I  lived,  but  do  you  know  Sumner  is  my 
idea  of  a  bishop.'  "  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  may  be 
said  here  that  Sumner  and  Lincoln  were  very 
nearly  the  same  height ;  Lincoln  was  six  feet 
four  inches. 

The  first  impression  that  most  people  gained 
of  Sumner,  even  in  his  earlier  years  in  Boston, 
long  before  he  had  acquired  great  fame  as  an 
orator  and  a  statesman,  was  not  altogether  favor 
able.  He  impressed  one  with  his  egotism  and 
profound  self-admiration.  He  always  delighted 
to  talk  of  the  celebrated  people  he  met,  and  of 
the  attentions  lavished  upon  him,  and  to  air  his 
erudition  and  his  learning,  of  which  he  certainly 
possessed  a  great  store.  His  accomplished  biog 
rapher  and  literary  executor,  Edward  L.  Pierce, 
has  this  to  say  of  him  :  "  It  pleased  him  to  know 
the  effect  of  his  orations,  and  to  let  others  know 
it  also.  This  habit,  which  developed  when  he 
took  the  platform  in  Boston,  remained  with  him 
to  the  end.  There  was  always  in  it,  as  well  in 
middle  life  as  in  youth,  something  spontaneous, 
artless,  childlike,  the  natural  expression  of  a  frank 
nature,  with  no  purpose  to  exalt  himself  or  de 
preciate  others.  Tact  would  have  imposed 
greater  reserve,  for  the  habit  repelled  many,  par 
ticularly  those  who  had  the  ambition  without 
the  power  to  do  what  he  could  do.  People  who 
are  clever,  without  breadth  or  strength,  are  dis 
posed  to  harp  upon  such  a  limitation,  overlook- 
15 


226  STATESMEN 

ing  altogether  the  talents  and  service  which  may 
accompany  it.  ...  This  quality  or  habit  of 
Sumner,  whatever  he  had  of  it,  was  harmless. 
It  led  him  to  no  distorted  view  of  men  and  things ; 
to  no  underestimate  of  other  men's  powers ;  to 
no  disparagement  of  their  work,  and  no  disregard 
of  their  opinions  and  counsels.  Jealousy  and 
envy  were  no  part  of  his  nature.  He  praised 
generously,  even  lavishly,  not  only  those  younger 
than  himself  or  inferior  in  position,  but  those  also 
who  were  his  peers  in  office  or  his  rivals  for 
fame."  Whittier  doubtless  had  this  defect  in 
mind  when,  after  his  death,  he  wrote  of  Sumner 
thus : 

"  Safely  his  dearest  friends  may  own 
The  slight  defects  he  never  hid, 
The  surface  blemish  in  the  stone 
Of  the  tall,  stately  pyramid. 

"  What  if  he  felt  the  natural  pride 

Of  power  in  noble  use  too  true, 
With  thin  humilities  to  hide 

The  work  he  did,  the  lore  he  knew  ?  " 

The  charge  that  he  was  a  tuft-hunter  or  seeker 
after  titled  folk  was  often  made  unjustly  against 
him,  but  it  so  happens  that  in  this  country  of  ours 
a  titled  foreigner  is  likely  to  be  a  person  of  dis 
tinction  whose  acquaintance  would  be  desirable 
to  any  person.  Being  at  the  White  House  one 
day  during  Lincoln's  administration,  the  Presi 
dent  asked  me  if,  on  arriving  at  the  Capitol, 
whither  I  was  going,  I  would  say  to  Senator 
Sumner  that  he  (the  President)  would  be  glad  if 


CHARLES  SUMNER  227 

the  Senator  would  call  to  see  him  later  in  the 
day,  if  entirely  convenient.  I  sought  out  Mr. 
Sumner  and  delivered  the  message,  whereupon, 
in  his  most  magnificent  manner,  he  said :  "  Let 
me  see.  I  have  an  engagement  to  take  luncheon 
with  the  Marquis  de  Chambrun,  and  later  to 
dine  with  the  British  Minister.  Yes,  yes,  I  think 
I  will  go ;  I  think  I  will  go.  Pray  tell  the  Presi 
dent  so."  There  was  no  need  for  Senator  Sum 
ner  to  tell  an  unimportant  person  like  myself 
what  his  engagements  with  great  people  were ; 
and  he  knew  very  well  that  I  should  not  see  the 
President  again  that  day. 

Before  Sumner  was  elected  to  the  Senate  he 
passed  several  years  abroad.  He  was  then  at 
an  impressionable  age  —  twenty-seven  years  — 
and  his  long  residence  abroad  (some  two  years 
and  three  or  four  months)  gave  him  a  certain 
air  of  foreign  distinction  which  to  sensitive 
critics  was  exceedingly  offensive.  While  abroad 
he  met  many  desirable  acquaintances,  and  he 
said  in  a  letter  to.  a  friend  at  home :  "  I  now 
hardly  call  to  mind  a  person  in  England  that 
I  cared  to  see  whom  I  have  not  met  under 
circumstances  the  most  agreeable  and  flatter 
ing  to  myself."  His  rare  intelligence  on  topics 
interesting  to  Englishmen,  their  politics,  his 
tory,  law,  literature,  authorship,  and  public 
men  commended  him  to  the  best  people  in 
England.  It  is  possible  that  his  brilliant  social 
successes  abroad  and  his  thoroughly  enjoy 
able  residence  there  made  him  somewhat  disaf 
fected  toward  the  comparatively  raw  culture  of 


228 


STATESMEN 


his  own  land.  On  his  return  from  abroad  he 
went  into  the  practice  of  law,  the  details  of 
which  were  to  him  exceedingly  irksome,  and  he 
could  not  refrain  from  confessing  to  his  intimate 
friends  that  he  had  little  heart  for  the  drudgery 


The  Bust  of  Sumner  in  the  Museum  of  Art,  Bostoft,  by  his  friend,  Thoma 
Crawford. 


of  a  law  office.  "  Sometimes,"  says  Mr.  Pierce,  "  at 
this  period  he  recurred  unwisely  to  his  foreign 
life  or  letters  in  conversation  with  clients  or 
lawyers  who  knew  or  cared  little  about  such 
things,  a  habit  likely  to  repel  those  who  were 
intent  only  on  the  business  in  hand,  and  to  make 
them  feel  that  his  mind  was  not  enough  on  what 


CHARLES  SUXNER  229 

most  concerned  them.  Indeed,  prudence  dic 
tated  a  greater  reserve  in  this  regard  with  all 
except  intimate  friends  than  he  maintained."  W. 
W.  Story,  then  a  student  in  the  office  of  George 
S.  Hillard  and  Charles  Sumner,  says :  "After  the 
flush  of  those  exciting  days  abroad,  his  office 
and  daily  occupation  seemed  dull  and  gray,  and 
I  cannot  but  think  that  that  changed  the  whole 
after  course  of  his  life  and  thought.  He  did  in 
deed  set  himself  with  determination  to  his  work, 
but  it  had  lost  the  charm  it  formerly  had  and  the 
dreams  of  those  delightful  days,  and  the  echoes 
of  those  far-away  voices  haunted  his  memory. 
America  seemed  flat  to  him  after  Europe.  This, 
however,  slowly  passed  away,  though  never  to 
his  dying  day  completely."  People  often  re 
ferred  to  Sumner's  "  English  manner." 

An  amusing  example  of  his  sensitiveness  to 
the  American  rawness  above  referred  to  appears 
in  a  letter  written  by  Sumner  during  the  Whig 
campaign  of  1840  to  a  friend  in  London.  The 
letter  was  written  on  one  of  the  campaign  note- 
papers  of  the  time,  and  bore  as  its  heading 
wood-cuts  of  General  William  Henry  Harri 
son  and  a  log"  cabin  and  cider-barrels.  He  re 
ferred  in  his  letter  to  "  this  poor  sheet  and  its 
pictures,"  and  said :  "  Our  politics  are  shabby 
enough.  The  Whigs,  constituting  the  opposi 
tion,  have  nominated  for  the  Presidency  the 
person  whose  head  adorns  a  corner  of  this  sheet. 
He  has  in  his  favor  his  good  conduct  during  the 
War  of  1812  and  an  alleged  victory  at  Tippe- 
canoe ;  and  the  vulgar  appeal  is  made,  grounded 


230  STATESMEN 

on  military  success.  This  has  made  him  a  more 
acceptable  candidate  than  Clay  or  Webster,  who 
have  been  serving  the  state  well  for  years. 
Harrison  lives  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  cultivating 
his  farm  with  his  own  hands,  and  as  what  is 
called  '  help '  in  that  part  of  the  country  is  not 
easy  to  be  procured,  his  wife  and  daughter  cook 
and  serve  the  dinner  for  seven  or  eight  people 
who  daily  challenge  his  hospitality.  An  admin 
istration  paper  alluded  to  him  as  living  in  a  log 
cabin  and  drinking  hard  cider.  The  Whigs  at 
once  adopted  these  Avords  and  placed  them  on 
their  favors.  They  proclaim  Harrison  the  candi 
date  of  the  log-cabin  and  hard-cider  class,  and 
this  vulgar  appeal  is  made  by  the  party  profess 
ing  a  monopoly  of  the  intelligence  and  educa 
tion  in  the  country!"  This  critical  note  on 
American  political  vulgarity  might  have  been 
by  an  English  visitor  to  a  friend  at  home. 

It  is  due  to  Simmer  to  say  that  when  Harrison 
died,  but  one  short  month  after  his  inauguration, 
he  wrote  to  Lord  Morpeth  :  "  I  think  you  will 
be  struck  by  the  short  and  simple  annunciation 
of  the  death  of  President  Harrison  by  his  Cabinet. 
This  was  written  by  Mr.  Webster,  who  is  the 
soul  of  our  government.  Harrison  died  after 
holding  power  thirty  days,  ere  the  shoes  were 
old  in  which  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  his  high 
office.  He  was  loved  much,  and  the  country  ex 
pected  much  from  him." 

But  more  delightfully  familiar  foreign  corre 
spondence  was  never  sent  from  Europe  by  any 
American  than  Simmer's  letters  to  his  friends  at 


CHARLES  SUMNER  231 

home.  His  powers  of  observation  were  acute, 
and  he  had  rare  and  unusual  facilities  for  accu 
mulating  entertaining  anecdotes  about  people 
now  well  known  in  history.  For  example,  he  said 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  said  of  Lord  Brougham, 
"  Damned  odd  fellow — half  mad  ;  "  while  Brough 
am,  who  was  vexed  with  the  Duke  for  interfer 
ing  in  British  politics,  said,  "  Westminster  Abbey 
is  yawning  for  him."  Of  Carlyle  he  wrote :  "  1 
heard  Carlyle  lecture  the  other  day.  He  seemed 
like  an  inspired  boy.  Truth  and  thoughts  that 
made  one  move  on  the  benches  came  from  his 
apparently  unconscious  mind  couched  in  the 
most  grotesque  style  and  condensed  to  a  degree 
of  intensity,  if  I  may  so  write.  He  is  the  Zerah 
Colburn  of  thought."  He  met  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
who  did  not  impress  him  very  pleasantly,  and 
who,  as  he  learned  from  one  of  his  intimate 
friends,  never  saw  "  fair  Melrose  aright,"  be 
cause  he  never  did  "  visit  it  by  the  pale  moon 
light."  The  truth  was,  according  to  Sir  David 
Brewster,  that  Scott  would  not  go  there  by 
night  "  for  fear  of  bogles." 

Sumner's  first  business  on  arriving  in  Europe 
was  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  French  lan 
guage,  and  his  acquisitive  powers  were  demon 
strated  by  the  ease  with  which  he  mastered  "  the 
lingo."  He  deferred  visits  to  all  places  of  in 
terest  and  held  himself  aloof  from  society  until 
he  had  overcome  the  difficulty  of  speech  which 
he  so  much  deplored.  When  he  arrived  in  Paris 
he  could  hardly  understand  a  single  sentence 
when  spoken  to  him.  In  less  than  a  month  he 


232  STATESMEN 

could  follow  a  lecturer,  and  in  six  weeks  he  could 
take  his  part  in  conversation,  and  at  the  end  of 
three  months  he  served  as  an  interpreter  before 
a  local  magistrate  on  the  examination  of  a  fellow- 
countryman.  Sumner's  mind  was  active  to  rest 
lessness,  and  in  his  earlier  years  he  threw  him 
self  into  study  with  ardor  so  great  as  to  impair 
his  health  and  get  for  him  the  reputation  of  being 
monkish  in  his  habits.  He  read  with  a  devour 
ing  eagerness,  but  with  great  discrimination  and 
care.  He  early  mastered  the  classics,  and  it  is 
possible  that  the  pedantry  of  which  he  was  in 
later  years  accused,  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he 
absorbed  the  works  of  Latin  authors  with  a  cer 
tain  avidity  and  enthusiasm  most  unusual.  His 
father  was  sheriff  of  Suffolk  County,  a  stern  man, 
and  ruling  his  household  with  an  iron  hand. 
Although  the  Sumners  were  of  good  family  and 
in  comfortable  circumstances,  it  is  noticeable 
that  when  Sumner's  father  recommended  him 
to  a  preparatory  school  where  he  should  be 
equipped  to  enter  Harvard  College,  he  laid  stress 
upon  the  necessity  that  the  lad  should  early  earn 
his  own  living.  After  he  had  been  graduated 
from  Harvard  he  unsuccessfully  sought  for  a 
subordinate  post  in  the  Boston  Latin  School. 
Then  he  taught  for  three  weeks  at  Brookline,  but 
soon  gave  up  school-teaching,  for  which  he  had 
neither  taste  nor  inclination.  At  the  age  of  nine 
teen  he  composed  an  essay  on  Commerce,  the 
subject  of  a  prize  competed  for  by  minors,  Avhich 
had  been  offered  by  a  Boston  society,  of  Avhich 
Daniel  Webster  was  president.  Sumner  won 


CHARLES  8UMNER  233 

the  prize,  and  Webster,  requesting  him  to  come 
forward,  took  him  by  the  hand,  called  him  his 
"  young  friend,"  and  in  kindly  words  congratu 
lated  him  on  his  possible  future.  The  great  and 
godlike  Daniel  little  thought  that  he  was  greet 
ing  one  who  should  succeed  him  in  the  Senate 
and  win  enduring  fame. 

When  Sumner  was  twenty-three  years  old  he 
had  his  first  sight  of  the  capital  of  the  republic, 
where  his  future  renown  was  to  be  won.  His 
letters  to  his  friends  and  family  from  Washing 
ton  are  entertaining,  and  they  bespeak  the  close 
observer.  This  was  in  1834,  when  Webster, 
Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Benton  were  in  the  Senate. 
Sumner  from  the  gallery  looked  on,  and  writing 
to  his  father,  said  :  "  Mr.  Calhoun  has  spoken  to 
day  on  Mr.  Webster's  Bank  bill.  He  is  no  ora 
tor  ;  very  rugged  in  his  language  and  studied  in 
style,  marching  directly  to  the  main  points  of  his 
subject  without  stopping  for  parley  or  introduc 
tion.  His  speech  made  a  very  strong  impression 
upon  a  very  numerous  audience."  Later  on, 
when  the  Oregon  question  was  still  under  dis 
cussion,  and  while  Sumner  was  yet  a  geat  way 
off  from  the  Senate,  he  wrote  to  Lord  Morpeth 
thus  :  "  Calhoun  has  won  what  Adams  has  lost, 
and  I  have  been  not  a  little  pained  to  be  obliged 
to  withdraw  my  sympathies  from  the  revered 
champion  of  freedom  and  give  them  to  the  un 
hesitating  advocate  of  slavery.  Calhoun's  course 
has  been  wise  and  able." 

Returning  to  Boston  from  Washington  after 
his  little  outing,  Sumner  tried  to  take  up  again 


234  STATESMEN 

the  practice  of  law,  which  he  did  in  a  certain 
perfunctory  and  not  enthusiastic  manner.  It  is 
difficult  to  think  of  Sumner  as  an  attorney, 
arguing  about  water  rights,  conveyances,  and 
similar  matters,  but  he  was  willing  to  accept 
the  place  of  a  reporter  of  judicial  decisions  and 
to  edit  law  books,  which  not  only  shows  that  he 
had  not  enough  clients  to  take  up  his  time,  but 
that  he  found  jurisprudence  a  more  congenial 
study  than  books  of  practice.  Regarding  Sum- 
ner's  position  in  life  and  literature  at  this  period, 
one  can  see  that  he  was,  for  a  little  while  at  least, 
out  of  place.  He  may  well  have  been  puzzled 
to  know  where  lay  his  true  vocation.  He  was  a 
scholar,  an  art  critic,  a  student  of  literature  and 
of  history,  but  to  him  even  politics,  in  which  he 
afterward  found  some  occupation,  were  to  the 
last  degree  distasteful.  Pierce  says  of  him  :  "  He 
was  aspiring,  his  nature  sensitive  and  refined  ; 
his  imagination  had  fed  upon  historic  ideals  and 
he  had  shared  the  intimacy  of  the  best  exem 
plars  among  living  men.  .  .  .  He  remem 
bered  the  promises  of  youth,  and  we  may  believe 
felt  keenly  that  as  yet  the  performance  of  mature 
life  had  fallen  far  below  them,  and  he  did  not  see 
opening  before  him  any  path  of  great  usefulness 
and  honor." 

There  are  those  who  have  believed  that  Sum- 
ner's  choice  of  a  career,  which  involved  that 
bitter  crusade  against  slavery  which  he  subse 
quently  waged,  was  determined  rather  deliber 
ately  than  spontaneously.  Many  people  have 
thought,  and  perhaps  not  unjustly,  that  Sumner 


CHARLES  SUMNER  235 

was  an  anti-slavery  man  from  sentiment  and  not 
from  principle.  His  first  high  anti-slavery  note 
is  in  a  letter  written  January  9,  1836,  to  Dr. 
Lieber,  in  Columbia,  S.  C.,  in  which  he  says : 
"  You  are  in  the  midst  of  slavery,  seated  among 
its  whirling  eddies,  blown  around  as  they  are  by 
the  blasts  of  Governor  McDuffie  fiercer  than 
any  from  the  old  wind-bags  of  ^Eolus.  What 
think  you  of  it?  Should  it  longer  exist?  Is  not 
emancipation  practicable  ?  We  are  becoming 
abolitionists  at  the  North  fast.  The  riots,  the 
attempts  to  abridge  the  freedom  of  discussion, 
Governor  McDuffie's  message,  and  the  conduct 
of  the  South  generally  have  caused  many  to 
think  favorably  of  immediate  emancipation  who 
never  before  inclined  to  it." 

Questions  of  international  law  growing  out  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States  supplied  topics  for 
discussion  in  which  Sumner  engaged  with  great 
heartiness.  The  right  of  search  exercised  by 
the  British  Government  in  the  suppression  of 
slavery,  the  validity  of  a  claim  to  a  slave  on 
the  high  seas  or  in  the  ports  of  foreign  pow 
ers,  and  other  matters  of  this  sort  attracted  his 
attention  and  engaged  his  pen.  He  was  not 
an  abolitionist  like  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and 
Wendell  Phillips,  but  believed  from  the  first  in 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  freedom  under  the  Con 
stitution  and  by  the  power  of  the  Union,  where 
as  the  abolitionists  stigmatized  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  as  "  a  covenant  with  death 
and  an  agreement  with  hell."  Other  concerns 
than  those  immediately  related  to  the  anti-slav- 


236  STATESMEN 

cry  movement  enlisted  his  great  and  growing 
powers.  The  education  of  the  blind  and  the 
idiotic,  and  care  for  prison  discipline,  were 
among  the  interests  that  received  his  active  co 
operation. 

He  reached  a  turning-point  in  his  career  when 
he  delivered  his  Fourth  of  July  oration  in  Bos 
ton,  in  1845,  choosing  for  his  topic  "  The  True 
Grandeur  of  Nations."  It  was  an  old-fashioned 
celebration  of  Independence  Day,  the  festivities 
and  exercises  being  under  the  charge  of  the  city 
government.  Sumner's  address,  therefore,  had  a 
certain  official  character  which  gave  it  impor 
tance.  The  oration  was  delivered  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
and  was  a  remarkable  occasion.  The  audience 
was  large,  expectation  was  high,  and  everybody 
appeared  to  apprehend  that  something  was  about 
to  happen.  Peleg  W.  Chandler  writes  of  this 
picture  presented  in  Faneuil  Hall :  "  Sumner's 
presence  as  he  came  forward  drew  undivided  at 
tention.  The  prominent  citizens  in  the  audience 
had  met  him  in  society  or  in  the  routine  of  his 
profession,  and  others  had  noted  him  on  the 
street,  but  probably  the  greater  number  of  his 
hearers  now  saw  him  for  the  first  time.  He  was 
then  the  impersonation  of  manly  beauty  and 
power,  of  commanding  stature,  his  figure  no 
longer  slender,  as  in  student  days,  but  well  de 
veloped  ;  his  features  finely  cut,  his  dark  hair 
hanging  in  masses  over  his  well-formed  brow, 
his  face  lighting  with  the  smile  \vhich  always 
won  him  friends  at  first  sight.  He  wore  a  dress- 
coat  with  gilt  buttons,  a  fancy  of  lawyers  at  that 


•Minimi] 


v 


Charles   Sumner. 


238  STA  TESMEN 

period,  and  white  waistcoat  and  trousers.  His 
gestures  were  unstudied  and  followed  no  rules ; 
the  most  frequent  one  was  the  swinging  of  the 
arm  above  the  head.  His  voice  was  clear  and 
strong,  resounding  through  the  hall,  but  at  times 
falling  in  cadences  hollow  and  pathetic.  Seldom 
has  there  been  seen  on  the  platform  a  more  at 
tractive  presence  than  his  as  now,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-four,  he  stood  for  the  first  time  before  the 
people  assembled  to  hear  him." 

On  this  occasion  the  officers,  sailors,  and  ma 
rines  from  a  United  States  man-of-war  lying  in 
the  harbor,  and  portions  of  the  State  militia  in  all 
their  glory,  were  present.  Sumner's  speech  was 
a  plea  for  peace,  and  these  questions  were  ut 
tered  in  the  course  of  his  oration :  "  What  is  the 
use  of  the  standing  army  ?  What  is  the  use  of 
the  navy  ?  What  is  the  use  of  the  fortifications  ? 
What  is  the  use  of  a  militia  of  the  United  States  ?  " 
He  also  employed  such  phrases  as  "  Farcical 
discipline ;  "  "  Shouldering  arms  and  carrying 
arms ; "  "  Men  closely  dressed  in  padded  and 
well-buttoned  coats  of  blue,  besmeared  with  gold, 
surmounted  by  a  huge  mountain  cap  of  shaggy 
bearskin."  These  expressions,  naturally  enough, 
angered  the  authorities  and  set  the  tongues  of 
Boston  gossips,  male  and  female,  wildly  wagging. 
It  was  an  epoch  in  Sumner's  career.  The  bold 
ness  of  his  utterances,  the  caustic  satire  in  which 
he  assailed  many  cherished  institutions  excited 
the  surprise  and  sometimes  the  wrath  of  conserv 
ative,  old-fogy  Boston.  The  whole  State  took 
up  the  discussion,  and  it  may  safely  be  said  that 


CHARLES  SUMNER  239 

the  Fourth  of  July  oration  of  the  young  orator 
gave  him  then  more  prominence  than  any  pre 
vious  act  of  his  life. 

The  Whig  party  was  about  dropping  into 
pieces,  and  Sumner  now  became  one  of  the  lead 
ers  of  the  faction  known  as  "  The  Young  Whigs." 
He  was  a  member  of  a  State  committee  appoint 
ed  in  the  fall  of  1845  and  charged  with  the  duty 
of  organizing  public  opinion  against  the  admis 
sion  of  Texas,  then  one  of  the  burning  topics  of 
the  time.  The  question  of  annexation,  and  of 
the  Mexican  War,  which  immediately  followed, 
rent  the  North  into  factions.  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp,  a  leading  Massachusetts  Whig,  for  some 
time  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
lent  his  voice  and  vote  to  the  prosecution  of  the 
war.  The  Whigs  were  then  contending  that 
they,  rather  than  the  Democrats,  were  disposed 
to  hinder  the  further  extension  of  slavery.  Win- 
throp's  action  roused  the  Young  Whigs  and 
Sumner  wrote  a  series  of  articles,  which  were 
published  in  the  Boston  newspapers,  reprobating 
Winthrop's  vote  and  criticising  him  in  the  bitter 
est  terms.  This  attack  upon  Winthrop  was  furi 
ously  resented  by  Boston  "  society,"  in  which 
Mr.  Winthrop,  as  a  descendant  of  one  of  the 
early  Governors,  was  a  conspicuous  figure  and 
was  regarded  as  one  of  the  bluest  of  the  blue- 
blooded.  Society  held  up  its  hands  in  horror  at 
the  bare  suggestion  that  a  young  man  like  Sum 
ner  should  dare  to  criticise  the  course  of  conduct 
of  the  admirable  and  admired  Winthrop.  Doors 
of  many  great  houses  in  the  modern  Athens  were 


240  STATESMEN 

from  thenceforth  closed  against  Sumner,  and 
people  of  Boston's  "  highest  society "  said  of 
him  :  "  He  is  outside  of  the  pale."  Sumner 
doubtless  felt  keenly  this  social  exclusion,  for  he 
had  a  relish  for  the  tastes,  luxury,  and  refined 
talk  which  at  that  time  distinguished  the  homes 
in  which  he  had  once  been  welcome,  but  from 
which  he  was  now  shut  out. 

The  Whigs  died  hard.  The  "  Silver  Grays," 
as  the  Conservatives  were  called,  worshipped 
Webster,  and  while  the  disturbances  of  social 
and  political  lines  were  going  on,  the  godlike 
Daniel,  speaking  in  Faneuil  Hall,  said :  "  Others 
rely  on  their  foundations  and  their  hopes  for  the 
welfare  of  the  country,  but  for  my  part,  in  the 
dark  and  troubled  night  that  is  upon  us,  I  see  no 
star  above  the  horizon  promising  light  to  guide 
us  but  the  intelligent,  patriotic,  united  Whig 
party  of  the  United  States."  Slowly  arose  from 
the  ruins  of  the  dismembered  Whig  party  the 
Free  Soil  organization  of  1848.  Among  these  in 
Boston  were  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Charles  Sum 
ner,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Henry  Wilson,  An- 
son  Burlingame,  E.  R.  Hoar,  John  A.  Andrew, 
and  others  whose  names  subsequently  became 
famous  in  the  history  of  the  country.  It  is  inter 
esting  to  note  that  among  the  Whigs  who  spoke 
in  Massachusetts  during  that  time  was  Abraham 
Lincoln,  then  the  only  Whig  member  of  Congress 
from  Illinois,  who  had  been  brought  by  his  party 
into  the  State  and  who  spoke  at  Worcester  on 
the  evening  before  the  Whig  State  Convention, 
when  his  arguments  were  chiefly  directed  against 


CHARLKS  SUMMER  241 

the  Free  Sellers,  to  whom  he  objected  as  being 
a  party  of  one  idea,  which  was  good  enough  in 
itself,  but  not  broad  enough  to  build  a  party  on. 
Webster  took  the  same  view,  when  he  said  about 
this  time :  "  No  drum-head  in  the  longest  day's 
march  was  ever  more  incessantly  beaten  and 
smitten  than  the  public  sentiment  in  the  North 
has  been  every  month  and  day  and  hour  by  the 
din  and  roll  and  rub-a-dub  of  abolition  writers 
and  abolition  lecturers." 

Fire  was  added  to  the  flames  of  the  anti-slavery 
excitement  by  the  arrest,  in  Boston,  in  April, 
1851,  of  Thomas  Sims,  a  negro,  claimed  as  a 
fugitive  slave  from  Georgia.  The  case  was 
taken  before  a  United  States  commissioner  sit 
ting  in  the  Boston  Court-House.  The  building 
was  surrounded  with  chains  to  keep  off  the  mob, 
and  amidst  great  excitement  the  negro  was 
awarded  to  his  claimant  and,  surrounded  by 
three  hundred  armed  policemen,  was  taken  to 
the  water-front  and  put  on  board  a  brig  bound  for 
Savannah.  This  incident  created  the  wildest  ex 
citement  not  only  throughout  New  England,  but 
through  the  North. 

Sumner's  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall,  to  which 
reference  was  made  in  the  opening  paragraph  of 
this  chapter,  was  sometimes  called  his  "  Marc 
Antony  speech."  It  was  a  bold  and  vigorous 
arraignment  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  a  denial 
of  its  binding  force  under  the  Constitution,  and 
was  admirably  designed  to  create  a  public  senti 
ment  which  would  render  enforcement  of  the 
law  impossible.  The  speech  was  exceedingly 
1C 


242  STATESMEN 

bitter  in  its  denunciation  of  the  men  engaged  in 
the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  and  of 
those  who  were  in  any  way  instrumental  in  its 
enactment.  He  pleaded  for  a  public  opinion 
that  should  keep  perpetual  guard  over  the  liber 
ties  of  all  within  the  boundaries  of  Massachusetts. 
u  Nay,  more,"  he  said ;  "  like  the  flaming  sword 
of  the  cherubim  at  the  gates  of  Paradise,  turning 
on  every  side,  it  shall  prevent  any  slave-hunter 
from  ever  setting  foot  in  this  commonwealth. 
Elsewhere  he  may  pursue  his  human  prey,  em 
ploy  his  congenial  bloodhounds,  and  exult  in  his 
successful  game,  but  into  Massachusetts  he  must 
not  come."  Referring  to  the  often-repeated 
statement  that  the  slavery  question  was  settled, 
he  said  :  "  Yes,  settled,  settled,  that  is  the  word. 
Not  king;  sir,  can  be  settled  which  is  not  right ; 
nothing  can  be  settled  which  is  against  free 
dom  ;  nothing  can  be  settled  which  is  against 
divine  law.  God,  nature,  and  all  the  holy  senti 
ments  of  the  heart  repudiate  any  such  false,  seem 
ing  settlement." 

An  election  for  United  States  Senator  from 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  was  now  impending, 
and  this  speech  placed  Sumner  foremost  among 
the  Free  Soilers  as  a  candidate.  The  Legislature 
met  early  in  January,  1851,  with  Henry  Wilson, 
Free  Soiler,  President  of  the  Senate,  and  Nathan 
iel  P.  Banks,  Jr.,  Democrat,  Speaker  of  the 
House.  The  Free  Soilers  and  the  Democrats 
formed  a  coalition,  under  the  terms  of  which  the 
Democrats  were  to  secure  the  greater  part  of  the 
State  offices,  the  Governorship  being  about  to  be 


The   Boston   Home  of   Mr.  Sumner,  at  20  Hancock   Stre 


24:4:  8  TA  TESMEN 

filled  by  the  Legislature,  and  the  Free  Soilers  to 
be  awarded  the  United  States  Senator.  This 
agreement  naturally  roused  great  wrath  among 
the  Whigs,  Avho  saw  that  Webster's  place  in  the 
United  States  Senate  was  to  pass  out  of  their 
control.  There  was  some  delay,  however,  in 
carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the  covenant, 
and  it  was  not  until  after  a  contest  which  lasted 
more  than  two  months  that  Sumner  was  finally 
elected. 

Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  was  the  candidate  of  some 
of  the  Democrats  who  held  themselves  aloof 
from  the  coalition.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  who 
had  been  appointed  by  the  Governor  to  fill  the 
temporary  vacancy  caused  by  Webster's  resign 
ing  his  seat  in  the  Senate  to  take  a  place  in  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Fillmore,  was  the  choice 
of  the  Whigs.  During  the  long  balloting  for 
Senator,  there  was  one  day  found  among  the 
ballots  in  the  box  one  bearing  this  eccentric  in 
scription  : 

"  Not  a  truck-and-dicker  coon, 
Not  a  man  in  the  moon  ; 
Get  Sumner  if  you  can, 
But  Rantoul  is  my  man." 

If  this  ballot  could  have  been  counted  for 
either  Rantoul  or  Sumner — and  both  parties 
claimed  it — the  election  Avould  have  been  con 
cluded  then  and  there.  Its  ambiguity  made  an 
other  ballot  necessary  after  a  long  debate  over 
the  possible  intention  of  the  voter. 

Sumner  was  sworn  in  as  United  States  Sena- 


CHARLES  SUMNER 

tor,    December    i,    1851.      His    first   speech  was 
made  on  the  tenth  day  of  that  session  on  a  reso 
lution  of  welcome  to   Louis  Kossuth,  the  Hun 
garian    patriot,  who   had   come  to  this  country 
with  a  national  invitation  and  was  accorded  a 
national  reception.     Sumner  took  conservative 
ground  against  any  action  which  would  seem  to 
be  a    recognition    of    the   belligerent   rights   of 
Hungary.     He    spoke  with    discretion,  and   his 
position    was    very    generally    applauded.     His 
first    anti-slavery    speech    was    delivered    eight 
months  later,  and  was  a  vigorous  blast  against 
the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  the  immediate  repeal  of 
which    he    demanded.     Many    efforts  had    been 
made   to   prevent    him    from    speaking,   but   he 
finally  found  an  opportunity  where  his  address 
could  be  made  under  due  provision  of  parliamen 
tary  law;  whereupon  he  delivered  a  speech  of 
tremendous  power  which  created  consternation 
among   the  pro-slavery   Senators  in  the  Senate 
and  made  a  profound  impression  throughout  the 
country.     He  did  not  usually  join  in  general  de 
bate  in  the  Senate,  apparently  confining  himself 
for  a  long  time  to  watching  the  drift  of  events, 
and  seldom   speaking  except  on  the  great  sub 
ject  nearest  his  heart.     Seward,  writing  to  him 
at  this    time,  said    that    he    hoped    that  Sumner 
would  seize  some   practical  question  and  show 
that  he  was  competent  to  deal  with  the  general 
affairs   of  the    government.     And    Chase,    then 
Governor  of  Ohio,  wrote,  advising  him  "  to  take 
off    his   coat  and    go  into  the  every-day  fight." 
Sumner's  hesitation  in  this  regard,  however,  did 


246  STATESMEN 

not  pass  away  until  his  own  party  was  fully  es 
tablished  in  power  in  the  United  States  Con 
gress  in  1 86 1.  He  was  systematically  excluded 
from  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Senate,  and 
was  generally  regarded  as  a  Catiline,  whose 
presence  in  the  Senate  chamber  was  a  menace  to 
the  perpetuity  of  the  Union. 

His  speeches  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  in 
the  early  part  of  1854,  were  even  more  vigorous, 
powerful,  and  caustic  than  those  which  he  de 
livered  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  law.  The 
proposition  to  repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise 
and  leave  the  friends  of  freedom  and  the  sup 
porters  of  slavery  to  fight  it  out  between  them 
selves  in  the  new  Territories  aroused  his  wrath, 
and  he  poured  out  his  righteous  indignation  in  a 
torrent  of  logic,  invective,  and  historic  illustration 
that  amazed  and  dismayed  the  pro-slavery  men. 
At  last  they  were  faced  by  an  adversary  even 
more  bold  and  aggressive  than  themselves. 
These  speeches  caused  a  prodigious  excitement 
everywhere,  and  some  of  the  more  feather- 
headed  Southern  politicians  in  Washington  act 
ually  proposed  Sumner's  expulsion  from  the 
Senate  ;  but  this  scheme,  if  it  was  ever  seriously 
entertained,  lacked  the  support  of  votes  to  carry 
it  through  and  was  abandoned.  In  the  course 
of  one  of  these  speeches  he  said  :  "  In  passing 
such  a  bill  as  is  now  threatened  you  scatter 
from  this  dark,  midnight  hour  no  seeds  of  har 
mony  and  good-will,  but  broadcast  through  the 
land  dragons'  teeth,  which  happily  may  not 
spring  up  in  direful  crops  of  armed  men,  yet,  I 


CHARLES  SUMNER  247 

am  assured,  sir,  will  fructify  in  civil  strife  and 
feud."  By  a  curious  coincidence,  almost  while 
this  was  being  delivered  in  the  Senate,  Boston 
was  greatly  excited  by  the  arrest  and  rendition 
of  another  fugitive  slave,  one  Anthony  Burns, 
claimed  by  a  Virginian  planter,  and  remanded  un 
der  the  orders  of  the  United  States  commissioner 
to  the  custody  of  the  United  States  marshal. 
During  the  excitement  a  deputy  marshal  was  ac 
cidentally  killed  by  a  pistol-shot,  and  there  were 
those  who  were  ready  to  claim  that  Simmer's 
language  in  the  Senate  had  led  to  the  act  which 
resulted  in  bloodshed.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
speech  could  not  have  reached  Boston  until  sev 
eral  hours  after  the  fugitive  slave  had  been  sent 
back  to  slavery. 

The  rage  of  the  Southerners  was  great,  and 
was  still  further  inflamed  by  later  speeches  on 
the  same  subject  during  the  debate  over  the 
proposition  to  throw  Kansas  and  Nebraska  open 
to  a  contest  between  slavery  and  freedom.  Out 
of  this  great  excitement  came  the  assault  of 
Preston  S.  Brooks  upon  Senator  Sumner.  In 
one  of  his  speeches  Sumner  had  referred  to  Sen 
ator  Butler,  of  South  Carolina,  with  his  usual 
causticity  and  sarcasm ;  but  during  the  address 
he  was  not  called  to  order  for  any  part  of  it, 
either  by  the  President  or  by  any  Senator,  al 
though  he  was  closely  watched  to  see  if  any  per 
sonality  could  justify  a  point  of  order  to  be  raised 
against  him.  He  sustained  himself  with  great 
force  and  emphasis,  and  with  a  vigor  and  rich 
ness  of  diction  and  felicity  of  expression  that  ex- 


The  Rendition  of  Anthony  Burns. 


CHARLES  SUMNER  249 

torted  the  praise  of  many  who  could  not  sym 
pathize  with  his  views.  Preston  S.  Brooks  was  a 
representative  from  South  Carolina,  a  son  of 
Senator  Butler's  cousin — a  relationship  hardly 
near  enough  perhaps  to  call  for  his  volunteer 
ing-  to  defend  the  South  Carolina  Senator  who, 
among  others,  had  been  attacked.  A  day  or  two 
passed  after  the  delivery  of  the  speech  in  which 
Butler  was  so  vigorously  criticised  by  Sumner, 
when  Brooks,  watching  his  opportunity,  stole  in 
to  the  Senate  chamber  where  Sumner  was  busily 
writing  at  his  desk,  the  Senate  not  being  then  in 
session,  and,  raising  a  heavy  cane,  beat  the  Sen 
ator  with  great  force  and  rapidity  over  the  head. 
Sumner  fell  to  the  floor  senseless  and  bleeding, 
unable  to  extricate  himself  from  the  desk  where 
he  was  sitting,  closely  engaged. 

This  assault,  from  the  effects  of  which  Sumner 
never  fully  recovered,  kindled  the  North  with 
flames  of  indignation  and  caused  an  intense  ex 
citement  throughout  the  country,  South  and 
North.  Brooks  was  hailed  as  a  champion  of  the 
South,  but  was  denounced  by  many  fair-minded 
slave-holders,  Benton,  among  others,  saying : 
"  This  is  not  an  assault,  sir,  it  is  a  conspiracy  ; 
yes,  sir,  a  conspiracy.  These  men  hunt  in  coup 
les  ;  it  is  a  conspiracy,  and  the  North  should 
know  it."  A  resolution  to  expel  Preston  S. 
Brooks  from  the  House  failed  of  the  necessary 
two-thirds  vote,  whereupon  he  resigned  his  seat, 
went  home,  and  was  re-elected.  A  few  months 
later  he  died,  and  a  cenotaph  was  erected  to 
his  memory  in  the  Congressional  cemetery  at 


250  STATESMEN 

Washington.  Sumner  remained  on  his  sick-bed 
for  many  weary  weeks,  and  after  a  magnificent 
reception  in  the  city  of  Boston,  he  went  to  Eu 
rope  for  health  and  remained  there  eight  months. 
He  returned  for  a  short  visit  and  again  went 
abroad,  remaining  this  time  a  year  and  a  half. 

The  election  of  Lincoln  and  the  flight  of  the 
Southern  Senators  and  Representatives  from 
Washington  left  the  party  of  Sumner  in  full 
possession  of  both  branches  of  Congress.  Sum 
ner  was  one  of  the  more  far-sighted  statesmen 
who  saw  that  war  was  not  only  imminent,  but 
likely  to  be  prolonged.  He  early  urged  upon 
the  President  the  policy  of  emancipating  the 
slaves,  and  he  embraced  every  occasion  to  press 
this  upon  the  President  and  all  others  in  author 
ity.  During  the  long  and  tedious  struggle  that 
succeeded,  he  was  actively  engaged  in  other  mat 
ters  than  those  which  related  directly  to  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  In  the  case  of  the  Trent, 
from  which  the  Confederate  envoys  Mason  and 
Slidell  had  been  taken  by  Captain  Wilkes,  of  the 
United  States  man-of-war  San  Jacinto,  Sumner 
argued  that  international  law  required  the  sur 
render  of  the  captives ;  but  as  the  question  did 
not  directly  require  the  intervention  of  the  Sen 
ate,  he  contented  himself  with  such  private 
conversation  as  would  be  influential  in  prepar 
ing  the  minds  of  Congressmen  to  receive  with 
patience  the  bitter  pill  which  Secretary  Seward's 
statesmanship  subsequently  showed  to  be  neces 
sary.  The  men  were  given  up.  From  this  time 
forward  Sumner  was  easily  the  leader  of  the 


CHARLES  SUMNER  251 

Senate  in  all  matters  requiring1  the  genius,  learn 
ing,  and  wide  information  of  a  statesmen.  In 
foreign  affairs  he  was  specially  useful,  and  when 
the  action  of  France  in  Mexico,  in  overturning 
the  republican  government  of  Juarez,  and  other 
dangerous  complications,  engaged  the  attention 
of  the  administration,  Sumner's  voice  and  influ 
ence  were  powerful  in  settling  some  of  the  most 
troublesome  questions.  In  the  reconstruction 
measures  that  followed  the  martial  subjugation 
of  the  rebel  States,  he  did  not  always  agree  with 
the  majority  of  Republican  Senators  and  Rep 
resentatives. 

On  June  i,  1865,  he  was  invited  by  the  city  of 
Boston  to  deliver  a  eulogy  on  Lincoln.  His 
address  on  this  important  and  impressive  occa 
sion  was  somewhat  disappointing  to  his  friends. 
His  kindly  biographer,  Mr.  Pierce,  says :  "  The 
oration  was  wanting  in  artistic  unity,  in  parts 
a  sense  of  due  proportion  was  disregarded, 
and  at  the  end  there  was  a  digression  which 
seriously  marred  the  effect."  It  was  evident 
that  Sumner's  attention  was  rather  directed 
to  the  policies  which  he  hoped  to  see  carried 
out  by  the  administration,  and  not  so  much 
to  the  life  and  services  of  the  illustrious  subject 
of  his  eulogy.  On  the  proposition  to  amend 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  so  that 
it  might  conform  to  the  changed  condition  of 
things  brought  on  by  the  War  of  the  Rebellion, 
he  also  disagreed  with  some  of  his  associates, 
and  the  draft  of  an  amendment  which  he  sub 
mitted  was  rejected  by  the  Senate. 


252  STATESMEN 

During  the  controversy  of  the  Senate  with 
President  Johnson,  Sumner  warmly  took  the 
part  of  Secretary  Stanton,  whom  Johnson  en 
deavored  to  eject  from  the  War  Department  in 
violation  of  law  ;  and  the  Senator's  famous  note 
to  the  Secretary  containing  the  single  word 
"  Stick,"  when  Stanton's  removal  was  threatened, 
has  become  almost  classic. 

During  the  two  terms  of  President  Grant, 
Sumner  was  frequently  at  odds  with  the  admin 
istration.  He  opposed  the  scheme  to  acquire  ad 
ditional  territory  in  San  Domingo.  So  frequent 
were  the  misunderstandings  between  the  Senator 
and  the  President  that  many  people  were  dis 
posed  to  regard  the  removal  of  Senator  Sumner 
from  the  Chairmanship  of  the  Foreign  Affairs 
Committee  of  the  Senate,  and  the  recall  of  his 
personal  friend,  Mr.  Motley,  Minister  to  England, 
as  the  Senators  punishment  for  having  dared  to 
oppose  the  wishes  of  the  President.  It  is  most 
likely  that  this  view  of  a  very  painful  episode  in 
American  politics  is  the  correct  one.  Toward 
the  last  of  his  career  Senator  Sumner  lost  some 
prestige  in  his  own  State  and  throughout  the 
North,  in  consequence  of  a  resolution  which  he 
introduced  forbidding  that  the  names  of  battles 
of  the  civil  war  should  be  continued  in  the 
army  register  or  placed  on  the  regimental  colors 
of  the  United  States.  This  so-called  "  battle-flag 
resolution  "  was  severely  condemned  in  Sumner's 
own  home,  and  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
passed  resolutions  of  disapproval.  These  reso 
lutions  were  subsequently  rescinded. 


CHARLES  SUMNER  253 

Senator  Sumner  died  in  Washington,  March, 
1874,  after  a  long  and  painful  illness.  Although 
the  country  had  been  prepared  for  the  event,  his 
final  exit  from  the  stage  of  life  created  a  pro 
found  impression  throughout  the  country,  and 
we  may  say  throughout  the  civilized  world.  Ora 
tions,  eulogies,  public  resolutions  and  addresses 
testified  the  appreciation  of  his  services  and  the 
high  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  by  the 
people  of  the  republic.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  past  sixty-three  years  of  age,  having  been 


Sumner's  Tomb  in   Mt.  Auburn  Cemetery,  near  Boston. 

born   in    January,   1811.     He    had  been  Senator 
continuously  for  twenty-three  years. 

In  this  sketch  I  have  presented  such  traits  of 
Sumner's  character  as  will  enable  the  reader  to 
form  a  tolerably  intelligent  and  clear  estimate  of 
the  man,  his  worth,  his  services,  and  his  place 
in  American  history.  His  faults,  of  which  suf 
ficient  mention  has  already  been  made,  were  not 
serious ;  they  were  personal  and  were  due  to 
Sumner's  strongly  marked  individuality.  *  In 
considering  his  commanding  talents,  his  eminent 
public  services,  these  defects  will  sink  out  of 
sight  and  be  speedily  forgotten.  But  a  man 


254  STATESMEN 

possessing  such  immense  vital  power  and  so 
many  individual  peculiarities  cannot  be  fitly 
described  Avithout  some  mention  of  the  minor 
flaws  of  character  that  were  apparent  to  those 
who  knew  him  well.  Whether  he  entered  the 
fight  for  freedom  from  the  highest  motives  or 
not,  none  will  gainsay  that  the  war  for  the  de 
fence  of  the  Union  was  more  vigorously  prose 
cuted  and  the  cause  of  human  liberty  more 
completely  successful  because  of  his  ardent, -con 
sistent,  eloquent,  and  effective  championship. 


Samuel  J.  Tilden. 
(After  a  pastel  by  Sarony  in  the  House  at  Gramercy  Park.) 


IX. 

SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN. 

A  YOUNG  man  who  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
should  compose  a  political  address  directed  to 
the  people  of  the  great  State  of  New  York,  and 
by  this  means  should  break  or  weaken  a  power 
ful  party  coalition,  would  be  regarded  as  a  mod 
el  of  precociousness  ;  and  philosophers,  shaking 
their  wise  heads  over  such  an  example  of  early 
manifested  genius,  would  be  very  likely  to  pre 
dict  a  barren  future  for  the  boy  who  should  be 
gin  life  with  so  much  apparent  maturity  of  men 
tal  power.  But  this  is  the  way  that  Samuel  J. 
Tilden  started  out  in  a  career  which  certainly  was 
not  unfruitful  of  important  results — important  to 
him  and  to  the  age  and  time  in  which  he  lived. 

This  is  how  it  happened  :  In  1832  there  was  a 
hot  political  contest  raging  in  the  State  of  New 
York.  There  were  three  parties  in  the  field. 
The  anti-Masons,  who  had  been  very  nearly  suc 
cessful  in  the  contests  of  previous  years,  had 
nominated  William  Wirt  for  President ;  the 
Democrats  had  nominated  Andrew  Jackson  and 
had  put  up  Martin  Van  Buren  as  their  candidate 
for  Vice-President ;  and  the  anti-Jackson  men, 
who  were  really  the  Whigs  of  that  day  (al 
though  not  so  named,  but  were  called  the  Nation- 


256  STATESMEN 

al  Republicans),  had  nominated  Henry  Clay. 
New  York  was  the  debatable  ground  in  that  na 
tional  campaign.  If  either  two  of  these  three 
parties  should  combine  and  work  together,  the 
coalition  would  carry  that  State.  Such  a  com 
bination  was  proposed  by  the  anti-Jackson  and 
the  anti- Mason  men.  The  anti-Mason  party 
nominated  Francis  Granger  for  Governor  and  a 
full  ticket  of  Presidential  electors.  The  anti- 
Jackson  men  in  their  convention  adopted  and  en 
dorsed  all  these  nominations.  It  was  understood 
that  both  of  these  parties  would  support  Granger 
for  Governor,  and  that  the  Presidential  electors, 
if  chosen,  would  be  divided  between  Wirt  and 
Clay.  The  situation  was  alarming  to  the  Jack 
son  men  and  was  eagerly  and  anxiously  discussed 
in  their  households.  Martin  Van  Buren  was  one 
of  the  leading  citizens  of  Columbia  County,  New 
York,  and  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  home  of  the 
Tildens,  where  the  perils  of  the  coalition  wrere 
considered  and  debated  in  the  hearing  of  "  Sam," 
a  sharp,  bright  lad,  then  scarcely  eighteen  years 
old.  He  was  a  tall,  slender  young  fellow,  with  a 
pale  face,  mild  blue  eyes,  firm  lips,  and  bright 
chestnut-colored  hair.  He  lived  in  an  atmos 
phere  of  political  excitement.  Andrew  Jackson's 
fierce  and  tempestuous  public  career,  his  bitter 
partisan  administration,  and  his  unrelenting  pur 
suit  of  his  enemies  had  filled  the  land  with  con 
fusion,  and  debate  ran  high.  At  the  country 
store,  around  the  village  forge,  by  the  fireside 
and  on  the  farm,  an  intelligent  and  quick-witted 
people  discussed  all  sides  of  the  pending  politi- 


SAMUEL  J.  TIL  DEN  257 

cal  questions.  Matters  that  now  rest  quietly 
enough  in  the  dusty  bins  of  ancient  political 
history  were  then  full  of  vital  importance  to 
voters  who  in  their  turn  have  passed  from  the 
stage  of  human  activity  and  are  no  more. 

The  boy  "  Sam  "  Tilden  listened  attentively  to 
the  talk  of  his  elders,  and  full  of  the  all-impor 
tant  problem — how  to  break  up  the  coalition  of 
the  anti-Masons  and  the  anti-Jackson  men,  he 
went  into  seclusion ;  asking  counsel  of  nobody,  he 
wrote  an  elaborate  "  Address  to  the  People."  In 
this  document  he  appealed  by  turns  to  the  selfish 
political  instincts  of  both  parties  to  the  coalition, 
and  put  the  case  in  a  clear,  logical,  and  convinc 
ing  light,  the  incongruity  of  the  alliance  and  the 
risk  incurred  in  dividing  the  electoral  ticket 
being  especially  dwelt  upon.  Having  finished 
the  address,  which  was  pretty  long,  Samuel  sub 
mitted  it  to  his  father's  critical  examination.  The 
father  listened  to  the  reading  with  surprise  and 
attention,  and  although  he  was  secretly  pleased 
with  the  precocity  of  the  lad,  he  did  not  venture 
to  tell  him  what  he  really  thought  of  his  work. 
But  as  Martin  Van  Buren  was  then  visiting  in 
the  town,  the  elder  Tilden  resolved  to  show  it 
to  him.  Van  Buren,  to  the  father's  great  de 
light,  was  so  struck  with  the  force  and  clearness 
of  the  address  that  he  advised  that  it  be  printed 
without  delay  and  without  making  any  material 
change  in  its  text.  It  was  accordingly  put  forth 
officially  through  the  columns  of  an  Albany  news- 
paper,where  it  occupied  a  half-page.  It  produced 
a  great  effect  upon  the  campaign,  and  the  vanity 
17 


258  STATESMEN 

of  the  lad,  as  we  may  well  suppose,  was  flattered 
by  the  fact  that  many  people  were  so  convinced 
that  Van  Buren  was  the  author  of  the  address 
that  that  astute  politician  was  obliged  publicly 
to  deny  that  he  had  written  it.  The  coalition 
was  broken  ;  the  Democrats  carried  the  State  by 
nearly  ten  thousand  majority,  and  anti-Masonry 
disappeared  from  the  politics  of  New  York. 

The  young  politician  was  already  fitted  for  col 
lege,  and  in  the  following  year,  1833,  he  entered 
Yale,  where  he  was  long  remembered  as  a  stu 
dious  young  undergraduate — good-natured,  but 
diffident  and  shy.  His  close  application  to  study 
impaired  his  health,  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  he 
was  obliged  to  return  home.  On  his  recovery  it 
was  decided  for  him  that  his  academic  course 
should  be  continued  and  finished  at  the  University 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  whither  he  went,  and 
where  just  before  he  graduated  he  won  a  second 
success  as  a  writer  on  public  affairs.  This  work 
was  a  review  of  the  political  situation  of  the 
time,  with  special  reference  to  the  question  of 
the  independent  treasury  then  agitating  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States.  Van  Buren  was  now 
President,  and  the  consequences  of  the  financial 
policy  pursued  by  Jackson  during  his  second 
term  were  a  widespread  depression  in  business 
and  general  suspension  of  the  banks.  The  gov 
ernment  deposits  had  been  removed  from  the 
United  States  Bank  and  placed  in  the  State 
banks,  many  of  which  were  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  This  money  had  been  freely  used  for 
discount  and  speculative  purposes,  and  after  a 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDES  259 

series  of  financial  disorders,  the  money  panic  of 
1837  swept  so  swiftly  through  the  land  that  busi 
ness  was  paralyzed  and  a  general  stagnation  of 
commerce  ensued.  President  Van  Buren  called 
Congress  together  in  special  session  and  set  be 
fore  that  body  the  financial  condition  of  the 
government.  His  principal  recommendation 
was  that  the  treasury  of  the  people  should  be 
kept  by  the  officers  of  the  government  and 
should  be  entirely  separated  from  the  business 
and  concerns  of  the  banks.  The  President's 
recommendations  \vere  very  hotly  discussed  in 
New  York  and  elsewhere,  and  Tilden,  now 
twenty-three  years  old,  plunged  into  the  discus 
sion  in  a  series  of  papers  which  were  written  in* 
admirable  style  and  evinced  a  thorough  knowl 
edge  of  governmental  affairs,  political  economy, 
law,  and  finance.  These  papers,  which  created  a 
profound  impression  at  the  time  they  first  ap 
peared,  were  sufficiently  mature  in  their  judg 
ment  and  literary  style  to  be  included  in  the  col 
lection  of  the  writings  and  speeches  of  Tilden 
which  has  been  made  since  his  death. 

He  also  appeared  in  politics,  more  conspicu 
ously,  perhaps,  when,  in  1838,  there  was  organ 
ized  in  the  Democratic  party,  to  which  the  Tilden 
family  adhered,  a  diversion  in  favor  of  William 
H.  Seward,  who  had  just  been  nominated  by  the 
Whigs  as  their  candidate  for  Governor  against 
Marcy,  who  was  the  nominee  of  the  Democrats. 
United  States  Senator  Tallmadge,  of  New  York, 
was  at  the  head  of  this  movement,  and  being  in 
Columbia  County,  speaking  in  behalf  of  the 


260 


STATESMEN 


"  bolters,"  he  was  greatly  surprised  by  the  ap 
pearance  of  young  Tilden,  who,  in  default  of  any 
other  speaker,  mounted  the  platform  at  a  public 
meeting,  and  with  such  skill  and  familiarity  with 
public  questions  combated  the  views  which  had 
been  proposed  by  Senator  Tallmadge.  This 
somewhat  dramatic  appearance  of  the  young 
man  in  active  politics  gave  him  great  vogue  at 


The  Tilden  Homestead,  where   Mr.  Tilden  was  Born,  at  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y. 

the  time  and  was  long  afterward  remembered  as 
one  of  the  most  striking  incidents  of  the  cam 
paign,  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  William 
H.  Seward. 

When  Tilden  had  completed  his  academic 
course  and  had  passed  through  the  Law  School 
of  the  New  York  University  he  became  more 
than  ever  engrossed  in  politics,  and  in  1840  he 
prepared  an  elaborate  speech,  which  he  deliv 
ered  in  his  native  town,  New  Lebanon,  N.  Y., 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDES'  261 

in  October  of  that  year.  The  subject  of  this 
speech,  which  was  "  Currency,  Prices,  and 
Wages,"  affords  a  very  good  clew  to  the  character 
of  Tilden's  subsequent  career.  He  was  always  a 
close  student  of  political  economy,  and  as  soon 
as  he  had  begun  to  read  anything  above  the 
ordinary  range  of  boys'  books,  he  tackled  with 
remarkable  courage  the  writings  of  the  great 
publicists  of  this  and  other  countries.  He  not 
only  mastered  the  details  of  the  financial  systems 
of  the  United  States,  but  grappled  successfully 
with  the  general  principles  of  finance  as  applied 
to  the  governments  of  the  world.  His  speech  at 
New  Lebanon  contained,  among  other  things,  a 
history  of  the  United  States  Bank,  which  is  of 
sufficient  historical  value  to  make  it  acceptable, 
even  to  this  day,  as  a  lucid  and  accurate  state 
ment  of  the  bearings  of  that  great  question  in  the 
politics  of  the  middle  of  this  century. 

Tilden  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1841,  and 
opened  an  office  for  the  practice  of  his  profes 
sion  in  the  city  of  New  York.  His  clients  were 
not  very  numerous,  and  he  turned  his  attention 
to  the  management  of  a  political  newspaper 
enterprise  which  was  now  proposed  by  some  of 
the  leading  men  of  the  Democratic  party.  He 
became  editor  of  the  Morning  Ncws^  a  success 
ful  political  newspaper,  which  supported  the 
nomination  of  James  K.  Polk  in  1844,  and  was 
active  in  the  canvass  of  that  year.  He  particu 
larly  devoted  himself  to  the  cause  of  the  work- 
ingmen,  and  threw  himself  with  great  animation 
into  an  attempt  to  defeat  the  scheme  of  the 


262  ft  TA  TESMEN 

Whigs,  who  had  expected  to  divide  the  vote  of 
the  State,  so  that  Clay  would  carry  it  by  a  plu- 
ralitv  and  thus  secure  his  election.  Polk  carried 
New  York  by  a  plurality  of  a  little  over  five 
thousand,  and  Silas  Wright  was  elected  Govern 
or  over  Millard  Fillmore,  the  Whig  candidate. 
After  the  election,  Tilden  closed  his  career  as  an 
editor  and  returned  to  the  practice  of  law.  In 
the  following  year  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  Assembly,  where  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
discussion  of  questions  relating  to  finance,  the  re 
duction  of  taxes,  and  the  enlargement  of  per 
sonal  liberty. 

When  the  war  between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico  was  declared,  in  1846,  he  favored  the 
joint  resolution  supporting  the  war  policy  of  the 
Polk  administration  and  voted  for  an  appropria 
tion  to  enroll  a  New  York  military  contingent. 
In  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1846,  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  he  played  a  distin 
guished  part,  his  activities  being  specially  di 
rected  to  such  constitutional  provisions  as 
should  guard  with  greater  safety  the  public 
treasury  and  maintain  the  credit  of  the  State. 
The  amendments  which  he  proposed  on  these 
subjects  were  of  Spartan  severity,  and  if  they 
had  all  been  adopted,  they  would  have  undoubt 
edly  made  the  financial  system  of  the  State  of 
New  York  much  more  nearly  perfect  than  it  is. 

One  of  the  early  triumphs  of  Mr.  Tilden  was 
achieved  in  what  is  known  as  the  Flagg  case, 
and  in  this  and  in  two  or  three  subsequent  causes 
in  which  he  distinguished  himself,  the  character 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN  263 

of  the  man's  mind  evinced  itself.  The  Flagg 
case  grew  out  of  an  election  contest  between 
Azariah  C.  Flagg  and  his  competitor,  Mr.  Giles, 
for  the  office  of  Comptroller  of  New  York  City. 
The  majority  of  Mr.  Flagg  was  one  hundred  and 
seventy-nine,  and  a  contest  arose  over  the  count 
ing  of  the  returns.  A  portion  of  the  tallies  in  the 
poll  were  not  forthcoming  when  the  case  came 
to  trial  in  the  courts,  but  Tilden,  by  a  curious 
process  of  reconstructing  and  analyzing  the 
tallies  already  in  possession  of  the  court,  suc 
ceeded  in  establishing  as  nearly  as  possible  the 
identity  of  the  missing  tallies ;  and  by  this  pro 
cess  of  reconstruction  he  convinced  the  court 
that  all  of  the  combinations  which  he  laid  before 
it  made  a  methodical  demonstration  in  favor  of 
Flagg.  In  effect  he  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
court  and  jury  printed  copies  of  his  recon 
structed  tallies  and  of  all  the  regular  tickets,  and 
going  over  them  step  by  step  he  was  enabled  to 
demonstrate  to  the  complete  satisfaction  of  all 
impartial  observers  that  his  case  was  impreg 
nable.  The  jury  returned  a  verdict  in  favor  of 
Tilden's  client.  Another  case  somewhat  similar 
which  evinced  great  legal  skill  in  its  manage 
ment  was  the  famous  Cunningham-Burdell  case. 
This  was  a  cause  growing  out  of  the  murder  of 
Dr.  Harvey  Burdell,  and  a  suit  brought  by  his 
alleged  wife,  a  Mrs.  Cunningham,  to  recover  a 
greater  portion  of  the  estate  of  the  deceased 
man.  The  case  was  one  in  which  great  interest 
was  felt  all  over  the  country  on  account  of  the 
mystery  which  surrounded  the  death  of  Burdell ; 


264  STATESMEN 

and  the  astute  lawyer  who  managed  the  case 
against  the  Cunningham  claimant  gained  great 
renown  not  only  on  account  of  the  notoriety  of 
the  case  itself,  but  by  the  happy  combination  of 
qualities  which  he  exhibited  in  his  management 
of  the  case.  A  somewhat  similar  cause  in  which 
he  figured  with  great  credit  was  that  of  the 
Delaware  &  Hudson  Canal  Company  against 
the  Pennsylvania  Coal  Company.  This  required 
the  exercise  of  the  same  variety  of  talent  as 
that  employed  in  unravelling  the  mysteries  and 
intricacies  of  the  before-mentioned  suits.  The 
point  at  issue  in  this  case  was,  whether  the 
enlargement  of  the  canal  had  rendered  trans 
portation  cheaper  than  it  had  been  before  its  en 
largement.  By  a  series  of  computations  and 
conclusions,  drawn  from  the  books  of  the  canal 
company,  Tilden  with  methodical  precision,  es 
tablished  a  complete  defence  for  the  coal  com 
pany.  The  system  which  he  pursued  was  a 
combination  of  skilfulness  and  ingenuity,  and  the 
case,  which  was  a  novelty  in  its  time,  is  referred 
to  as  one  in  which  novel  principles  and  entirely 
original  methods  of  procedure  wrere  adopted. 
His  tables,  which  were  marvels  of  methodical 
elaborateness,  became  a  species  of  technical 
standard  in  matters  of  this  kind.  Commenting 
on  this  case  long  afterward,  Tilden  said :  "  I  re 
member  an  anecdote  which  ex-President  Van 
Buren  once  told  me  of  John  Randolph.  Some 
body  was  speaking  to  him  in  a  complimentary 
vein  in  reference  to  a  debate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  told  him  that  a  speech  of 


Mr.  Tilden's  New  York   House,   at  No.   15   Gramercy   Park. 


266  STATESMEN 

his  had  not  been  answered.  '  Answered,  sir,' 
said  he  ;  'it  was  not  made  to  be  answered/  And 
so,  sir,  these  tables  were  not  made  to  be  confuted. 
They  are  made  according-  to  the  best  process  of 
scientific  analysis,  proved  step  by  step  from  the 
records  of  the  plaintiffs  themselves,  and  are  in 
troduced  here  in  strict  conformity  of  the  rules 
of  evidence."  Tilden  showed  that  the  coal 
company,  instead  of  reaping  an  advantage  from 
the  enlargement  of  the  canal,  had  suffered  loss. 
The  verdict  accordingly  was  rendered  in  favor  of 
his  clients. 

From  this  time  Tilden's  career  as  a  lawyer  was 
largely  devoted  to  rescuing  corporations  from 
unprofitable  and  embarrassing  litigation,  in  reor 
ganizing  their  administration,  in  re-establishing 
their  credit,  and  in  rendering  their  resources 
available.  One  of  his  biographers  has  said : 
"  Since  the  year  1855,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  more 
than  half  the  great  railway  corporations  North 
of  the  Ohio  and  between  the  Hudson  and  Mis 
souri  Rivers  were  at  some  time  his  clients. 
.  .  .  It  was  here  that  his  legal  attainments, 
his  unsurpassed  skill  as  a  financier,  his  unlimited 
capacity  for  concentrated  labor,  and  his  con 
stantly  increasing  weight  of  character  and  per 
sonal  influence  found  full  activity."  In  other 
words,  Mr.  Tilden  now  became  what  is  com 
monly  known  as  "  a  railroad  lawyer,"  and  he 
laid  not  only  the  foundation  for  notable  profes 
sional  success,  but  also  of  a  large  fortune  which 
he  accumulated  during  the  years  ensuing. 

The  legal  work  by  which  Tilden  will  longest 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN  267 

be  remembered  undoubtedly  was  his  service  in 
tracing  out  and  exposing  the  frauds  of  the  so- 
called  "  Tammany  Ring "  that  ruled  in  New 
York  during  the  years  from  1869  to  1871.  By 
a  series  of  political  manoeuvres  this  combination 
of  political  adventurers  had  secured  a  position 
in  the  government  of  the  city  of  New  York 
that  seemed  to  be  utterly  unassailable.  The  so- 
called  Tweed  charter  of  the  city  gave  these 
men,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  William  M. 
Tweed,  full  power  over  the  finances — receipts 
and  expenditures — of  the  great  metropolis.  At 
a  single  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Special  Audit, 
for  example,  three  men  made  the  order  for  the 
payment  of  $6,312,500,  of  which  scarcely  ten  per 
cent,  in  value  was  realized  by  the  city  of  New 
York.  As  time  advanced,  the  percentages  of 
theft  mixed  in  these  bills,  which  were  audited 
and  paid  under  the  direction  of  the  members 
of  the  Tweed  ring,  grew  in  amount.  In  1870  the 
theft  was  sixty-six  per  cent.,  and  a  little  later  it 
was  eighty-five  per  cent.  The  aggregate  of 
fraudulent  bills  after  April  5,  1870,  and  dur 
ing  the  rest  of  that  year,  was  §12,250,000;  in 
1874  it  was  $3,400,000.  Nearly  $15,750,000  of 
fraudulent  bills  were  comprised  in  the  booty 
grasped  on  a  single  day.  So  complete  was 
the  power  of  this  corrupt  combination  un 
der  the  laws  of  the  State,  that  Mr.  Tilden, 
in  one  of  his  famous  papers  on  the  Tweed 
ring,  said  that  the  act  of  the  Legislature  might 
have  run  in  this  way :  "  We,  the  people  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate 


268  STATESMEN 

and  Assembly,  do  by  our  supreme  legislative 
authority  hereby  grant  William  M.  Tweed  the 
office  of  Commissioner  of  Public  Works,  and 
annex  thereto,  in  addition  to  the  powers  hereto 
fore  held  by  the  Street  Commissioner,  all  the 
powers  heretofore  held  by  the  various  officers 
of  the  Croton  Department,  to  have  and  to  hold 
the  same  for  four  years,  with  the  privilege  of 
extending  the  term  by  surrendering  any  rem 
nant  thereof  and  receiving  a  reappointment  for 
a  further  new  term  of  four  years,  which  office 
shall  be  free  and  discharged  of  the  power  of 
the  Governor  to  remove  for  cause  on  charges, 
as  in  the  case  of  sheriffs,  and  every  power  of 
removal  by  the  city  government;  and  absolutely 
of  all  accountability  whatsoever,  unless  Mayor 
Hall  or  some  successor  shall  choose  to  prefer 
articles  of  impeachment  to  the  Court  of  Com 
mon  Pleas,  and  unless  all  six  judges  shall  attend 
to  try  such  articles."  This  was  exactly  the 
operation  of  the  act  conferring  on  the  city  of 
New  York  the  famous  so-called  Tweed  charter. 
The  secret  accounts  of  the  ring  were  published 
in  one  of  the  newspapers  of  the  day  at  the  in 
stance  of  one  of  the  political  associates  of  Tweed 
and  his  fellow  conspirators.  This  exposure, 
which  created  great  excitement  throughout 
New  York,  and  indeed  throughout  the  whole 
country,  was  followed  up  by  a  combination 
of  good  citizens,  at  whose  instance  the  work 
of  further  unravelling  the  frauds  and  bringing 
the  offenders  to  justice  was  vigorously  prose 
cuted.  Mr.  Tilden's  chief  contribution  to  the 


SAMUEL  J.   TILDEN  269 

good  work  was  an  investigation  of  the  methods 
by  which  the  conspirators  divided  among  them 
selves  the  proceeds  of  their  thefts.  By  obtain 
ing  from  one  of  the  banks,  under  due  process  of 
law,  the  checks  which  had  passed  through  that 
institution,  and  comparing  them  with  the  ac 
counts  in  the  Comptroller's  office,  Tilden  man 
aged  to  expose  with  convincing  lucidity  of  proof 
the  details  of  the  conspiracy.  All  of  these  de 
tails  were  laid  bare  with  consummate  ingenuity 
and  with  a  clearness  of  statement  which  left  no 
doubt  of  their  accuracy  and  genuineness.  By 
the  information  which  he  obtained  from  the 
banking  institution  before  referred  to,  he  estab 
lished  the  fact  that  but  one-third  of  the  nominal 
amount  of  the  bills  audited  by  the  city  govern 
ment  had  ever  reached  the  persons  who  pre 
tended  to  be  entitled  to  the  payments,  and  that 
two-thirds  of  this  great  amount  had  been  divided 
among  public  officers  and  their  accomplices,  and 
he  traced  the  dividends  into  the  actual  possession 
of  some  of  the  accused  parties.  He  thus  con 
verted  a  strong  suspicion  into  mathematical 
certainty  and  furnished  judicial  proof  against 
the  guilty  parties.  In  process  of  time  the  ring 
was  broken,  its  power  was  utterly  destroyed,  and 
the  chief  conspirator,  after  having  been  brought 
back  a  fugitive  from  a  foreign  land,  was  sen 
tenced  to  jail,  where  he  died  miserably. 

During  the  entire  period  of  the  wicked  ascen 
dency  of  the  Tweed  ring  Tilden  had  been  con 
tinued  as  Chairman  of  the  State  Democratic 
Committee,  but  he  did  not  share  in  its  corrupt 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDKN  271 

councils,  and  he  was  kept  ignorant  of  its  auda 
cious  schemes.  There  was  no  bond  of  sympa 
thy  between  him  and  the  vulgar  creatures  who 
had  taken  possession  of  the  government  of  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  when  he  had  succeeded 
in  the  work  of  capturing  the  stronghold  of  the 
Tweed  ring,  he  entered  the  Assembly  of  the 
State  as  a  member  and  engaged  in  the  work  of 
repealing  the  laws  that  gave  to  this  conspiracy 
its  power,  and  in  purging  the  statute  books  of  all 
legislation  that  had  been  framed  to  enable  the 
adventurers  to  carry  on  their  nefarious  schemes. 
It  is  fair  to  presume  that  it  was  at  this  time 
that  Tilden  conceived  the  ambition  of  becoming 
President  of  the  United  States.  His  popularity 
and  repute  as  a  reformer  and  as  an  exterminator 
of  gross  political  abuses  were  now  very  thor 
oughly  established.  His  name  was  in  the  mouths 
of  all  men,  and  he  had  contrived  without  appar 
ent  injustice  to  others  to  secure  for  himself  great 
credit  of  the  entire  work  of  overthrowing  one  of 
the  most  powerful  and  apparently  impregnable 
political  combinations  ever  made  in  this  country. 
This  was  his  opportunity.  The  Governorship  to 
which  he  was  elected  in  1874  became  a  stepping- 
stone  to  secure  the  nomination  of  his  party  in 
1876.  His  name  was  identified  with  adminis 
trative  reform,  and  his  political  methods  were 
those  of  a  complete  and  wellnigh  perfect  organ 
ization.  His  inaugural  address  as  Governor  was 
devoted  to  questions  of  political  economy,  and 
one  of  the  earliest  acts  of  his  administration  wras 
to  attack  the  "  Canal  Ring."  This  was  another 


272  STATESMEN 

combination  by  which  the  grossest  abuses  in  the 
management  of  the  Erie  and  Champlain  Canals 
had  long  been  maintained.  By  a  system  of  false 
accounts  and  prodigal  expenditures  the  managers 
of  the  ring  had  robbed  the  State  and  oppressed 
its  internal  commerce.  Tilden's  vigorous  efforts 
in  the  overthrow  of  this  corrupt  combination  re 
claimed  a  great  sum  of  money  from  the  con 
spirators  and  readjusted  the  whole  scheme  and 
policy  of  canal  management.  His  public  admin 
istration,  therefore,  had  been  signalized  by  the 
overthrow  of  the  Tweed  ring  and  the  Canal 
ring,  and  a  decrease  of  the  tax  budget  of  the 
State  of  New  York  by  nearly  one-half.  His 
position  in  1876  was  most  fortunate.  He  was 
virtually  master  of  the  Democratic  party,  then 
ascendant  in  his  State,  and  had  gained  a  national 
reputation  for  honesty  and  administrative  ability 
which  was  certainly  not  surpassed  by  any  states 
man  of  his  time.  Although  there  was  a  vigor 
ous  opposition  organized  against  his  nomination 
by  the  national  convention  of  his  party,  he 
succeeded  in  carrying  off  the  honors,  and  was 
the  accepted  and  accredited  candidate  of  his 
party  that  year,  being  opposed  by  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes,  the  Republican  nominee. 

It  was  generally  supposed  that  the  votes  of 
the  States  recently  in  rebellion  could  be  safely 
counted  on  to  vote  for  Tilden,  but  when  the 
returns  were  made  up  it  was  found  that  South 
Carolina,  Louisiana,  and  Florida  were  included 
in  the  list  of  States  claimed  by  the  Republicans. 
The  colored  people  in  those  three  States  were 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN  273 

naturally  regarded  as  secure  for  the  Republican 
candidate.  The  white  population  of  South  Caro 
lina  was  only  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  thou 
sand,  while  the  colored  population  was  four  hun 
dred  and  fifteen  thousand,  and  the  disparity 
of  the  Avhite  and  colored  races  in  the  three 
States  above  named,  it  was  claimed,  justified 
the  belief  that  the  returns  as  made  out  by  the 
election  officers  were  trustworthy.  Both  parties 
persisted  in  claiming  a  victory  in  the  three 
States,  and  the  confidence  of  the  leaders  in- 
flamed  the  excitement  of  the  masses  of  voters. 
A  long  contest  ensued  in  each  of  these  States, 
and  representatives  of  the  two  parties  pro 
ceeded  in  hot  haste  to  the  respective  capitals 
of  the  States  in  order  to  see  that  "  a  fair  count " 
was  had.  So  great  was  the  excitement  through 
out  the  country  that  General  Grant,  who  was 
then  President,  felt  constrained  to  send  to  Gen 
eral  Sherman,  who  commanded  the  army  of  the 
United  States,  this  memorable  despatch :  "  In 
struct  General  Augur,  in  Louisiana,  and  General 
Ruger,  in  Florida,  to  be  vigilant  with  the  force 
at  their  command,  to  preserve  peace  and  good 
order,  and  to  see  that  the  proper  and  legal 
boards  of  canvassers  are  unmolested  in  the  per 
formance  of  their  duties.  Should  there  be  any 
grounds  of  suspicion  of  a  fraudulent  count  on 
either  side  it  should  be  reported  and  denounced 
at  once.  No  man  worthy  of  the  office  of  Presi 
dent  should  be  willing  to  hold  it  if  counted  in  or 
placed  there  by  fraud.  Either  party  can  afford 
to  be  disappointed  in  the  result;  the  country 
18 


274  STATESMEN 

cannot  afford  to  have  the  result  tainted  by  the 
suspicion  of  illegal  or  false  returns." 

The  final  result  of  the  contests  in  the  three 
States,  as  determined  by  the  canvassing  boards, 
gave  the  electoral  votes  in  each  one  of  them  to 
Hayes,  and  later  in  November,  1876,  when  the 
electors  met  in  the  several  States,  the  count 
from  all  the  States  of  the  Union  showed  one 
hundred  and  eighty-five  electors  for  Hayes 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  for  Tilden. 
The  Democrats  had  hoped  up  to  the  last  that  at 
least  some  one  of  the  States,  or  possibly  one  of 
the  electors  in  one  of  the  three  States,  would  be 
returned  for  Tilden,  and  when  they  found  that 
every  vote  of  the  three  States  was  counted  for 
Hayes,  their  anger  was  intense.  Threats  were 
made  that  General  Hayes  should  never  be  in 
augurated  as  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
a  fierce  excitement  swept  over  the  country.  As 
the  time  drew  near  when  the  electoral  votes 
should  be  counted  by  Congress  in  joint  session 
of  both  Houses,  this  excitement  became  deeper 
and  more  strained.  Under  the  existing  law  it 
was  directed  that  "  No  electoral  vote  objected  to 
shall  be  counted,  except  by  the  concurrent  votes 
of  the  two  Houses."  At  this  time  the  House  of 
Representatives  had  a  Democratic  majority  and 
the  Senate  had  a  Republican  majority.  It  was 
obvious  that  either  of  the  two  Houses  could  pre 
vent  the  counting  of  an  electoral  vote.  Accord 
ingly,  after  a  long  and  heated  discussion,  a  bill 
was  passed  by  both  Houses  providing  for  the 
creation  of  an  Electoral  Commission,  to  which 


276  STATESMEN 

body  all  the  questions  in  dispute  should  be  re 
ferred.  This  commission  was  to  be  composed 
of  five  members  of  the  Senate,  five  members  of 
the  House,  and  five  Justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  This  Electoral  Com 
mission  was  finally  organized  on  the  thirty-first 
day  of  January,  1877,  and  was  composed  as  fol 
lows  :  Nathan  Clifford,  Samuel  F.  Miller,  Ste 
phen  J.  Field,  William  Strong,  Joseph  P.  Brad 
ley,  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court;  George  F. 
Edmunds,  Oliver  P.  Morton,  Frederick  T.  Fre- 
linghuysen,  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  Allen  G.  Thur- 
man,  United  States  Senators  ;  Henry  B.  Payne, 
Eppa  Hunton,  Josiah  G.  Abbott,  James  A.  Gar- 
field,  and  George  F.  Hoar,  Representatives  in 
Congress — eight  Republicans  and  seven  Demo 
crats.  It  had  been  generally  supposed  that  the 
fifth  justice  selected  for  this  commission  would 
be  David  Davis,  of  Illinois,  then  a  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  Judge 
Davis  was  classed  as  an  Independent,  although 
there  was  an  impression  abroad  that  he  would 
cast  his  vote  in  favor  of  Tilden.  By  a  singular 
combination  of  circumstances  he  was  not  able  to 
serve  on  the  commission,  having  at  that  juncture 
been  elected  United  States  Senator  from  the 
State  of  Illinois.  His  place  was  taken  by  Jus 
tice  Bradley,  of  New  Jersey,  who  served  on  the 
commission.  The  result  of  a  long,  laborious, 
and  absorbingly  interesting  contest  before  the 
commission  was  a  decision  in  favor  of  General 
Hayes  by  a  vote  of  eight  to  seven,  and  the  find 
ing  of  the  commission  was  finally  confirmed. 


SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN  277 

Other  complications  arose  in  this  contest  in  con 
sequence  of  the  failure  of  the  Presidential  elec 
tors  from  the  State  of  Oregon  to  present  a 
unanimous  report.  This  point  was  also  decided 
in  favor  of  General  Hayes  by  the  Electoral  Com 
mission,  before  which  body  it  came. 

An  unpleasant  sequel  to  this  most  unfortunate 
dispute  was  the  production  of  a  series  of  cipher 
despatches  which  had  passed  between  the  friends 
of  Mr.  Tilden  during  the  exciting  period  of  the 
count  in  the  winter  of  1876-7.  These  despatches 
had  been  brought  into  the  custody  of  a  committee 
of  the  United  States  Senate  by  subpoenas  and 
were  finally  unravelled  by  an  expert,  and  the  con 
troversy,  which  had  been  reopened  by  Tilden's 
friends,  became  even  more  acrimonious  than 
before.  The  investigation  which  followed 
showed  that  the  friends  of  Tilden  had  been 
engaged  in  an  effort,  which  proved  abortive,  to 
use  money  corruptly  to  influence  the  action  of 
returning  boards  or  to  secure  the  votes  of  Presi 
dential  electors  in  some  of  the  States  where 
contests  were  made.  Tilden  appeared  before 
the  committee  of  investigation  and  swore  that 
he  knew  nothing  of  any  of  these  telegrams,  and 
that  when  he  was  informed  of  certain  negotia 
tions  in  South  Carolina  he  had  stopped  them. 
He  emphatically  declared  that  he  scorned  to  de 
fend  his  title  by  such  means  as  were  employed 
to  secure  a  felonious  possession. 

Probably  the  actual  merits  of  this  most  un 
happy  controversy  will  not  be  satisfactorily 
adjusted  during  the  lifetime  of  the  present  gen- 


278  STATESMEN 

eration  of  men.  Commenting  on  the  final  out 
come  of  this  deplorable  business,  Elaine  in  his 
"  Twenty  Years  in  Congress  "  says  :  "  The  inter 
est  throughout  the  investigation  centred  upon 
Mr.  Tilden,  and  concerning  him  and  his  course 
there  followed  general  discussion,  angry  accu 
sation,  and  warm  defence.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  testimony  to  contradict  the  oath  taken  by 
Mr.  Tilden,  and  there  has  been  no  desire  to  fasten 
a  guilty  responsibility  upon  him.  But  the  simple 
fact  remains,  that  a  Presidential  canvass  which 
began  with  a  ponderous  manifesto  in  favor  of 
reform  in  every  department  of  the  government, 
and  which  accused  those  who  had  been  in 
trusted  with  power  for  sixteen  years  of  every 
form  of  dishonesty  and  corruption,  ended  with 
a  persistent  and  shameless  effort  to  bribe  the 
electors  of  three  States."  But  no  biographical 
sketch  of  Tilden  would  be  complete  unless  it  in 
sisted,  as  Blaine  has  insisted,  that  there  has  been 
no  serious  attempt  to  fasten  upon  his  character 
any  accusation  of  complicity  in  the  corrupt  ef 
forts  made  to  put  him  into  the  Presidency. 

Mr.  Tilden  died  at  his  country  place,  August 
4,  1886. 

The  model  for  Tilden's  political  career  was 
Martin  Van  Buren,  whom  he  admired  for  his 
many  talents  and  respected  for  his  private  worth. 
As  a  lad  Tilden  became  well  acquainted  with 
Van  Buren  and  his  family,  and  as  he  advanced 
to  mature  years  he  was  admitted  to  the  inti 
macy  and  confidence  of  the  "  Sage  of  Kinder- 
hook,"  as  Van  Buren  was  familiarly  called  by 


flaFf'fflo 


4S-MSMlv  <:fll 
^     * 


280  STATESMEN 

his  admiring  neighbors.  Van  Buren  was  a  mas 
ter  of  political  strategy,  and  in  the  history  of 
American  politics  he  stands  without  a  rival  as  a 
manager  of  men.  Tilden  was  adroit,  ingenious, 
and  cautious.  He  was  skilful  in  planning  and 
strong  in  execution,  and  he  inspired  his  party 
with  a  courage  and  energy  which  up  to  the  time 
of  his  becoming  its  natural  leader  it  had  failed 
to  evince.  Although  Tilden  was  during  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  immersed  in  active  poli 
tics,  his  tastes  were  scholarly  and  refined.  He 
was  a  high  authority  in  bibliography  and  was  a 
zealous  and  untiring  collector  of  books  and  manu 
scripts  relating  to  American  history.  His  house, 
which  in  later  years  became  an  abode  of  ele 
gant  leisure,  was  stored  with  rich  treasures  of 
art  and  literature.  In  everything  that  pertained 
to  American  history  and  to  the  advancement  of 
American  interests  Tilden  was  an  enthusiastic 
and  devoted  patriot.  His  manner  in  social  inter 
course  was  variable.  At  times  he  was  mysteri 
ous  and  secretive  and  at  other  times  cordial  and 
frank  to  the  last  degree.  Probably  very  few  per 
sons  were  admitted  to  his  closest  intimacy,  and  he 
died  as  he  lived,  without  acquiring  any  permanent 
hold  on  the  affections  of  the  whole  people.  By 
the  terms  of  his  will  the  bulk  of  a  fortune  of  sev 
eral  millions  was  bequeathed  to  the  city  of  New 
York  for  the  building  and  maintenance  of  a  great 
public  library.  By  an  unfortunate  judicial  con 
struction  of  the  terms  of  this  will  the  greater  part 
of  his  princely  benefaction  was  diverted  to  the 
uses  of  collateral  heirs  of  the  Tilden  estate. 


James  G.  Blaine. 


X. 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE.  - 

WE  have  seen  how  the  precocious  promise  of 
the  youth  of  one  statesman,  Samuel  J.  Tilden, 
was  amply  fulfilled  in  his  maturer  years.  But 
the  historian  will  say  that  this  was  an  exception 
to  a  general  rule.  Brilliant  men  have  not  usually 
evinced  much  of  their  brightness  in  their  boy 
hood.  There  is  great  hope  for  the  dull  boy,  after 
all.  James  G.  Blaine,  if  not  a  boy  of  very  com 
monplace  traits  of  mental  character,  certainly  was 
not  a  lad  of  remarkable  promise.  When  he  was 
a  student  at  Washington  College,  in  Western 
Pennsylvania,  one  who  knew  him  well  said  of 
him  that  "  he  was  a  plain,  quiet,  good-tempered, 
studious  boy,"  remarkable  for  nothing  but  his 
love  of  reading,  and  giving  no  hint  of  the  great 
ness  of  his  future  career  as  a  statesman.  One  of 
his  college  mates  has  said  of  him  :  "  I  knew 
Blaine  at  Washington  College,  he  being  in  the 
next  class  below  me.  Elaine's  parents  lived  at 
Washington  during  their  son's  college  course, 
and  on  that  account  the  students  saw  less  of 
'  Jim  '  Blaine,  as  he  was  familiarly  called,  than  if 
he  had  boarded  at  the  college  instead  of  at  home. 
Young  Blaine  was  a  sturdy,  heavy-set,  matter-of- 
fact  looking  young  fellow,  not  at  all  prepossess- 


282  STATESMEN 

ing  in  appearance,  and  exceedingly  awkward  at 
times,  and  giving  no  hint  of  the  elegant  gentle 
man  he  has  grown  to  be.  He  was  never  seen  on 
the  street  or  play-ground,  and  rarely  mingled  in 
the  customary  sports  of  the  boys.  I  remember 
we  had  a  very  fine  foot-ball  ground,  but  I  never 
remember  to  have  seen  young  Elaine  on  it.  In 
fact,  I  cannot  say  for  certain  that  I  ever  saw  him 
engaged  in  any  kind  of  sport  during  the  entire 
time  I  was  at  college.  It  is  my  impression  that 
he  passed  all  his  leisure  at  home  or  in  one  of  the 
college  halls  or  with  a  book.  He  was  a  great 
reader,  almost  a  book-worm,  and  would  become 
absorbed  to  a  wonderful  degree  in  his  books." 

The  bent  of  his  mind,  so  far  as  it  was  mani 
fested  at  all,  was  in  the  direction  of  newspaper 
writing.  In  his  graduation  address,  delivered  in 
September,  1847,  when  he  was  in  the  eighteenth 
year  of  his  age,  he  devoted  himself  to  "  The  Duty 
of  an  Educated  American."  Texas  had  just  been 
annexed  to  the  United  States,  and  gold  had  just 
been  discovered  in  California.  The  budding 
young  statesman  said  :  "  The  sphere  of  labor  for 
the  educated  American  is  continually  enlarging. 
But  recently  we  added  the  vast  dominion  of  the 
Lone  Star  Republic  to  our  glorious  Union.  The 
war  to  which  that  act  gave  rise  is  now  in  victo 
rious  progress,  and  will  not  end  without  another 
great  accession  to  our  territory,  possibly  carry 
ing  our  flag  beyond  the  Great  American  Desert 
to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  sea.  Where  our 
armies  march,  population  follows;  and  the  full 
duty  for  the  scholar  is  to  be  continental  in  ex- 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  283 

tent  and  as  varied  as  the  domains  of  a  progres 
sive  civilization."  It  will  be  observed  that  the 
youthful  orator  took  no  part  in  the  discussion 
that  then  raged  among  his  elders  as  to  the  right 
eousness  or  injustice  of  the  annexation  of  Texas 
and  the  war  which  it  provoked. 

After  graduation,  Elaine  found  employment  as 
a  professor  of  mathematics  in  a  military  school 
at  Blue  Lick  Springs,  Ky.,  where  about  two 
hundred  young  students,  sons  of  the  planters 
of  the  South,  were  pupils.  These  lads  were  of  a 
class  hard  to  govern,  and  early  in  his  connection 
with  the  school  there  was  a  rebellion  against  the 
faculty.  Some  of  the  students  attacked  the  pro 
fessors  with  pistols  and  knives,  but  Elaine,  who 
was  conspicuous  in  this  fight  at  the  head  of  the 
faculty,  used  only  his  fists  and  arms,  and  his  par 
ty  finally  triumphed  in  the  fight,  and  Elaine 
Avon  from  the  young  Southerners  more  respect 
on  account  of  his  having  been  the  hero  of  the 
struggle  than  if  he  had  been  only  the  accom 
plished  professor  that  he  was. 

In  the  third  year  of  his  proiessorship  at  Blue 
Lick,  having  married  Miss  Harriet  Stanwood,  of 
Maine,  he  went  to  her  native  State,  where  he 
tarried  for  a  time ;  then  returned  to  Pennsyl 
vania  and  taught  in  the  Philadelphia  Blind  Asy 
lum.  But  from  1854  onward  he  was  wholly 
identified  with  Maine,  having  taken  up  his  resi 
dence  at  Augusta,  the  capital  of  that  State.  He 
became  part  owner  and  editor-in-chief  of  the  Ken- 
nebec  Journal,  and  entered  upon  a  career  of  active 
politics  and  journalism.  It  is  interesting  to  note 


284  STATESMEN 

here  that  early  in  his  editorial  work  Elaine 
evinced  his  high  admiration  for  Henry  Clay, 
who,  as  everybody  now  knows,  was  the  pattern 
and  exemplar  of  the  life  and  career  of  the  future 
"  Man  from  Maine."  Elaine  was  always  pleased 
when  a  parallel  in  his  and  Clay's  public  life  was 
found,  and  he  never  disguised  the  ardent  ad 
miration  which  Clay's  character  and  services 
inspired  in  him.  In  his  newspaper,  very  soon 
after  he  took  charge  of  it,  Elaine  said:  "As  a 
speaker,  Mr.  Clay  is  very  earnest  and  persuasive  ; 
not  polished  either  in  manner  or  diction,  but  still 
irresistibly  pleasing.  He  speaks  from  the  soul, 
and  the  moment  you  hear  him  you  are  assured 
that  he  gives  utterance  only  to  what  he  knows 
and  feels  to  be  the  truth  and  the  cause  of  human 
freedom." 

Elaine's  first  public  address  was  made  with 
much  diffidence,  because  he  had  not  been  suc 
cessful  as  a  debater  in  the  literary  society  of  his 
college,  had  had  no  experience,  and  was  nervous 
and  easily  embarrassed,  and  his  speech  was  hin 
dered  by  a  slight  impediment.  He  had  attended 
the  first  national  convention  of  the  Republican 
party,  which  was  held  at  Philadelphia  in  1856, 
and  on  his  return  he  was  asked  to  address  a 
meeting  of  his  fellow  Republicans  in  Augusta,  to 
tell  them  the  story  of  the  convention's  doings. 
When  he  became  accustomed  to  the  sound  of 
his  voice,  and  the  friendly  audience  before  him 
encouraged  him  by  their  sympathetic  applause, 
he  was  emboldened  to  make  what  was  said  to 
be  a  very  creditable  speech.  A  more  important 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE 


285 


address,  however,  was  delivered  at  a  Republican 
meeting  in  Litchfield,  Me.,  during  the  following 
month.  This  speech  was  carefully  prepared  and 
committed  to  memory  and  was  notable  for  its 
conservatism  and  for  the  moderation  of  state 
ment  which  characterized  it. 

He  was  actively  engaged  in  the  political  cam 
paign  of  1856,  when  Fremont  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  the  Presidency  ;  and  in  1858  he  was 


The   Birthplace  of  Mr.  Blaine  at  West  Brownsville,  Pa. 

elected  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  to  a  political 
office,  being  a  member  of  the  Assembly  of  the 
Maine  Legislature.  He  now  devoted  himself  to 
a  careful  and  exhaustive  study  of  the  rules  of 
parliamentary  usage  and  the  manual  of  debate. 
He  was  an  assiduous  student  of  all  public  ques 
tions  and  was  master  of  the  methods  of  pro 
cedure  in  legislative  bodies,  not,  as  many  have 
supposed,  by  reason  of  his  powers  of  intuition, 
but  by  a  diligent  study  of  rules,  precedents, 


286  STATESMEN 

and  historical  examples.  These  acquisitions  of 
knowledge  formed  the  basis  of  his  election  as 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
Maine  Legislature  two  years  later.  He  served 
two  terms,  and  his  training  in  the  Legislature  as 
member  and  presiding  officer  fitted  him  for  the 
honor  which  was  still  later  conferred  upon  him 
by  the  national  House  of  Representatives. 

His  studies  continued  to  be  ardent,  and  he 
spent  his  nights  in  storing  his  mind  with  useful 
political  knowledge  and  in  almost  committing  to 
memory  the  political  history  not  only  of  his 
adopted  State,  but  of  all  the  other  States  of  the 
Union.  One  of  his  first  speeches  of  general 
and  national  interest  was  on  a  proposition  in 
Congress  favoring  the  purchase  of  Cuba  by 
the  United  States.  In  a  speech  before  the  Leg 
islature,  where  the  question  was  incidentally 
brought  up,  he  said  :  "  The  proposition  to  place 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal  of  the 
President,  and  to  run  the  nation  in  debt  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  the  money ;  to  surrender 
to  him  the  power  to  make  treaties,  annex  Ter 
ritories  and  States ;  to  create  him  absolute 
dictator,  writh  the  purse  of  the  nation  in  one 
hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other ;  to  have  peace 
or  war,  prosperity  or  misfortune  follow  at  his 
will  or  to  be  decided  by  his  errors — such  a 
proposition,  I  say,  is  too  monstrous  to  be  en 
tertained  for  one  moment  by  anyone  who  values 
the  preservation  of  constitutional  rights  and  the 
perpetuity  of  a  republican  union." 

Although    Blaine    was    not   born  in  the  State 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE^  287 

with  which  his  name  is  so  inclissolubly  con 
nected,  the  people  of  that  region  have  never 
apparently  regarded  him  other  than  as  one  of 
themselves.  His  glory  is  their  glory,  and  his 
fame  is  their  own.  Writing  of  him  in  later  years, 
Governor  Edward  Kent  said :  "  Before  he  was 
twenty-nine  he  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  exec 
utive  committee  of  the  Republican  organization 
in  Maine,  a  position  from  which  he  shaped  and 
directed  political  matters  in  the  State,  leading 
his  party  to  brilliant  victory.  Had  Mr.  Elaine 
been  New  England  born  he  would  probably  not 
have  received  such  rapid  advancement  at  so 
early  an  age,  even  with  the  same  ability  that  he 
possessed  ;  but  there  was  a  sort  of  Western  dash 
about  him  that  took  with  us  Down-Easters — an 
expression  of  frankness,  candor,  and  confidence 
that  gave  him  from  the  start  a  very  strong  and 
permanent  hold  on  our  people,  and  as  the  foun 
dation  of  all,  pure  character  and  a  masterly  abil 
ity  equal  to  all  demands  made  upon  him." 

The  most  notable  speech  made  by  Elaine  dur 
ing  his  term  of  service  in  the  Legislature  was 
on  the  war  power  of  Congress  as  involved  in 
the  question  of  confiscation  of  rebel  property. 
He  took  the  Lincoln  view  of  the  power  of  the 
nation  and  approved  unqualifiedly  President 
Lincoln's  propositions  regarding  the  question  of 
confiscation.  In  his  devotion  to  the  Republican 
cause,  Elaine  went  to  the  Chicago  convention  as 
a  delegate  in  1860.  He  had  pledged  himself  to 
the  Lincoln  interest  and  refused  to  be  won  over 
to  the  Sewarcl  column,  although  a  number  of  the 


288 


STATESMEN 


Maine  delegates  supported  the  cause  of  Seward. 
Earlier  than  this,  when  Lincoln  and  Douglas 
were  having  their  memorable  oratorical  contest 
for  the  Senatorship  in  1858,  Elaine  was  on  the 
scene  with  his  pen  describing  the  wonderful  de 
bate  for  his  little  newspaper  in  Augusta,  Me. 


Mr.  Blaine  at  Thirty  Years  of  Age. 

In  one  of  his  letters  he  ventured  the  prediction 
that  Lincoln  would  be  defeated  for  Senator  by 
Douglas,  but  would  beat  Douglas  for  President 
in  1860.  This  letter  was  copied  from  the  Kcnnc- 
bcc  Journal  into  several  Illinois  papers  friendly 
to  Lincoln,  and  Lincoln  himself  cut  it  out  and 
carried  it  in  his  pocket-book  until  long  after  he 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  289 

was  inaugurated  President.  When  Lincoln  and 
Blaine  met  in  Washington,  after  the  election  of 
the  Maine  man  to  the  House  of  Representatives, 
their  friendship  became  at  once  strong,  and  it 
lasted  with  the  life  of  the  great  President. 

Blaine  was  elected  to  the  Thirty-eighth  Con-_ 
gress  in  1862,  succeeding  Anson  P.  Morrill. 
Among  the  prominent  men  in  the  House  at  that 
time  were  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland ; 
John  A.  Bingham  and  Samuel  Shellaberger,  of 
Ohio ;  General  Schenck,  of  Ohio ;  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  and  James  A.  Garfield, 
of  Ohio.  When  Blaine  was  sworn  in  by  the 
Speaker  of  the  House,  Garfield,  who  was  to  be 
come  his  most  intimate  friend  in  Congress,  stood 
upon  his  right  and  William  B.  Allison,  of  Ohio, 
on  his  left.  This  was  the  beginning  of  one  of 
the  most  notable  terms  of  Congressional  service 
which  has  been  enjoyed  by  any  American.  He 
was  seven  times  elected  to  Congress,  making 
fourteen  years  in  all,  and  was  elected  by  the 
House  three  times  Speaker,  making  his  service 
in  the  chair  six  years. 

His  first  speech  in  Congress  was  during  the 
spring  succeeding  the  beginning  of  his  term  in 
the  House,  when  he  made  an  elaborate  address 
on  the  subject,  "  Can  the  Country  Sustain  the  Ex 
penses  of  the  War  and  Pay  the  Debt  which  it 
will  involve  ?  "  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Blaine 
boldly  advocated  the  assumption  by  the  National 
Government  of  all  the  debts  incurred  by  the 
States  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  His 
speech  was  a  business-like  statement  of  the  finan- 
19 


290  STATESMEN 

cial  condition  of  the  government,  its  resources, 
and  its  pecuniary  liabilities  and  possibilities.  It 
was  a  model  of  clearness  and  strength  and  was 
admirably  calculated  to  restore  public  confidence 
and  strengthen  the  faith  of  the  people  in  the 
ability  of  the  National  Government  to  prosecute 
the  war  to  its  end  and  to  adjust  satisfactorily 
the  burdens  of  taxation  which  the  great  debts  in 
curred  would  make  necessary.  At  that  time 
there  were  many  timid  souls  who  apparently 
dreaded  bankruptcy  more  than  they  feared  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union.  Elaine  was  one  of  the 
more  courageous  statesmen  who,  while  he  be 
lieved  in  the  righteousness  of  the  cause  of  the 
country,  never  for  one  moment  doubted  its  abil 
ity  to  carry  on  the  war,  sustained  as  it  would  be 
by  the  patriotism  of  the  people.  He  showed 
that  even  this  great  national  debt,  which  he 
estimated  at  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars, 
could  be  easily  borne  by  the  country,  and  was 
not  greater  in  proportion  than  the  debt  assumed 
by  our  government  at  the  time  it  was  founded  in 
1779.  His  historical  parallel  was  a  striking  one, 
and  by  quoting  from  Jefferson's  estimates  of  the 
financial  carrying  capacity  of  the  people  in  1779, 
he  argued  that  the  republic  of  this  later  time 
was  even  more  competent  to  bear  its  burden 
than  it  was  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  the  Revo 
lution. 

This  speech,  which  was  circulated  by  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  copies  throughout  the 
United  States,  concluded  with  these  memorable 
sentences :  "  These  are  the  great  elements  of 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE 


291 


material  progress,  and  they  comprehend  the 
entire  circle  of  human  enterprise,  agriculture, 
commerce,  manufacture,  mining.  They  assure 
to  us  an  increase  in  property  and  population 
that  will  surpass  the  most  sanguine  deductions 
of  our  census  tables,  framed  as  those  tables  are 
upon  the  ratios  and  relations  of  our  workers 
in  the  past ;  they  give  into  our  hands,  under 


Where   Mr.  Blaine   went  to   School   at  West  Brownsville,  Pa. 

the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  the  power  to 
command  our  fate  as  a  nation ;  they  hold  out 
to  us  the  grandest  future  reserved  for  any  peo 
ple,  and  with  this  promise  they  teach  us  the 
lesson  of  patience  and  render  confidence  and 
fortitude  a  duty.  With  such  amplitude  and 
affluence  of  resources,  and  with  such  a  vast 
stake  at  issue,  we  should  be  unworthy  of  our 
lineage  and  inheritance  if  we  for  one  moment 
mistrusted  our  ability  to  maintain  ourselves  a 


292  STATESMEN 

united  people  with  one  country,  one  constitu 
tion,  one  destiny." 

Elaine  contented  himself,  however,  during  his 
first  term  in  Congress  with  speaking  briefly  on  a 
variety  of  important  measures,  including  those 
for  the  adjustment  of  the  revenue,  tariff  for  pro 
tection  of  American  industries,  a  law  in  refer 
ence  to  fugitive  slaves,  and  other  similar  subjects. 
But  his  remarks  on  these  questions,  while  they 
were  short,  were  always  pungent,  crisp,  and  full 
of  information.  It  may  be  truly  said  of  him 
that  he  never  spoke  without  an  absolute  and 
full  comprehension  of  his  subject,  whatever  it 
might  be. 

He  was  a  "  hard-money  "  man,  and  during  a 
debate  on  an  act  of  Congress  proposed  to  pre 
vent  the  depreciation  of  greenbacks  and  the  ap 
preciation  of  gold,  he  said  :  "  This  whole  bill 
aims  at  what  is  simply  impossible.  You  cannot 
by  Congressional  enactment  make  a  coined  dol 
lar  worth  less  than  it  is,  nor  a  paper  dollar  worth 
more  than  it  is.  I  think  we  had  experience 
enough  in  that  direction  Avith  the  famous  gold 
bill  at  the  last  session.  .  .  .  The  bill  under 
consideration  has  already  had  a  most  pernicious 
effect,  and  should  it  become  a  law  no  man  can 
measure  the  degree  of  its  hurtful  influence." 
Although  the  bill  had  the  powerful  support  of 
Thaddeus  Stevens,  who  was  the  chairman  of  the 
House  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  it  was 
soon  after  withdrawn,  as  the  arguments  against 
it  were  too  powerful  for  its  friends  to  overcome. 
Reconstruction  measures  naturally  engaged 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  293 

much  attention  in  Congress  at  this  time,  and 
Elaine's  attitude  on  some  of  the  great  questions 
which  came  up  from  time  to  time  was  consist 
ent,  manly,  and  patriotic.  He  insisted  that  the 
basis  of  representation  should  be  so  arranged 
that  the  newly  enfranchised  negroes  of  the  South 
ern  States  should  not  be  deprived  of  their  rights, 
and  that  the  representation  of  those  States  should 
be  diminished  just  so  far  as  the  right  of  suffrage 
was  curtailed  by  law  or  by  usage. 

During  the  long  session  of  the  Thirty-ninth 
Congress,  in  1866,  occurred  the  celebrated 
Blaine-Conkling  episode  which  resulted  in  the 
life-long  estrangement  of  these  two  eminent 
men.  Conkling  was  an  educated  lawyer,  im 
perious  in  his  manner  and  impatient  of  opposi 
tion.  General  James  B.  Fry,  who  had  been  a 
provost  -  marshal- general  in  the  State  of  New 
York  during  the  war,  was  violently  assailed  by 
Representative  Conkling  in  the  course  of  debate 
in  the  House.  Elaine  came  to  the  rescue  of 
General  Fry,  and  the  two  Representatives  be 
came  involved  in  a  bitter  personal  controversy. 
The  outcome  of  the  long  and  acrimonious  debate 
was  a  polished  shaft  from  Elaine's  quiver  directed 
at  Conkling's  well-known  personal  vanity.  The 
weapon  struck  its  mark,  and  Conkling  never 
forgave  Elaine  for  this  conspicuous  and  rankling 
wound.  From  that  day  until  he  died  he  never 
exchanged  a  word  with  Elaine  and  apparently 
never  saw  him,  although  the  two  men  were  as 
sociated  together  as  members  of  the  same  party 
in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate  for  more  than 


294  STA  TESMEN 

fifteen  years,  and  it  may  here  be  said  that  wher 
ever  Conkling's  influence  could  harass  the  am 
bition  or  hinder  the  upward  steps  of  his  adver 
sary,  harassment  and  hinderance  were  in  the 
way. 

Before  Elaine  was  elected  Speaker,  he  occa 
sionally  was  called  to  the  chair  by  the  presiding 
officer,  and  he  became  one  of  the  most  conspic 
uous  figures  among  the  younger  members  of  the 
majority  of  the  House.  His  personal  qualities 
were  speedily  made  the  subject  of  comment  by 
observers,  and  visitors  to  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  usually  asked  first  to  be  shown 
Elaine.  A  newspaper  correspondent  writing  at 
this  time  says :  "  Elaine  is  metallic  ;  you  cannot 
conceive  how  a  shot  would  pierce  him,  for 
there  seems  to  be  no  joint  in  his  harness.  He  is 
a  man  who  knows  what  the  weather  was  yester 
day  morning  in  Dakota ;  what  the  Emperor's  pol 
icy  will  be  touching  Mexico  ;  on  what  day  of  the 
week  the  i6th  of  December,  proximo,  will  fall; 
who  is  chairman  of  the  school  committee  in 
Kennebunk ;  what  is  the  best  way  of  managing 
the  national  debt ;  together  with  all  the  other 
interests  of  to-day,  which  anybody  else  would 
stagger  under.  How  he  does  it  nobody  knows. 
He  is  always  in  his  place.  He  must  absorb  de 
tails  by  assimilation  at  his  finger-ends.  As  I 
said,  he  is  clear  metal ;  his  features  are  cast  in  a 
mould  ;  his  attitudes  are  those  of  a  bronze  figure  ; 
his  voice  clinks,  and  he  has  ideas  as  fixed  as 
brass." 

Elaine's    first    election    as    Speaker    was    on 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE  295 

the  4th  of  March,  1869,  when  he  succeeded 
Schuyler  Colfax,  who  had  just  been  inaugu 
rated  as  Vice-President  of  the  United  States. 
As  Speaker  he  was  alert,  thoroughly  well  versed 
in  parliamentary  usage  and  in  the  rules,  regula 
tions,  and  precedents  of  his  high  office.  He  was 
impartial,  quick,  self-poised,  and  in  all  respects 
probably  the  best  equipped  parliamentarian  who 
ever  occupied  the  chair,  except  only  (possibly) 
his  great  exemplar,  Henry  Clay,  who  still  holds 
the  reputation  of  being  the  best  Speaker  who 
ever  presided  over  the  House  of  Representa 
tives.  He  spent  more  hours  in  the  chair  than 
any  of  his  predecessors  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  and  was  almost  never  absent  from  his 
place.  His  strength  appeared  to  be  indomitable, 
and  through  some  of  the  longest  sessions  of  the 
House  he  remained  at  his  post  without  apparent 
fatigue.  He  was  always  courteous  and  fair,  and 
never  lost  his  head;  when  the  most  exciting 
scenes  of  parliamentary  confusion  raged  around 
him,  he  alone  remained  immovable,  composed, 
and  intently  observant  of  every  detail  of  the  tu 
multuous  sea  that  was  enclosed  within  the  walls 
of  the  House.  In  a  farewell  address  delivered 
when  he  finally  laid  down  the  emblem  of  his 
office  for  the  last  time,  he  admirably  set  forth 
the  conditions  under  which  the  presiding  officer 
must  administer  his  duties  in  these  words : 
"  The  Speakership  of  the  American  House  of 
Representatives  is  a  post  of  honor,  of  dignity, 
of  power,  of  responsibility.  Its  duties  are  at 
once  complex  and  continuous ;  they  are  both 


296  STATESMEN 

onerous  and  delicate;  they  are  performed  in 
the  bright  light  of  day  under  the  eye  of  the 
whole  people,  subject  at  all  times  to  the  clos 
est  observation  and  always  attended  with  the 
sharpest  criticism.  I  think  no  other  official 
is  held  to  such  instant  and  such  rigid  account 
ability.  Parliamentary  rulings  in  their  very 
nature  are  peremptory,  almost  absolute  in  au 
thority  and  instantaneous  in  effect.  They  can 
not  always  be  enforced  in  such  a  way  as  to  win 
applause  or  secure  popularity,  but  I  am  sure 
that  no  man  of  any  party  who  is  worthy  to  fill 
this  chair  will  ever  see  a  dividing  line  between 
duty  and  policy." 

During  the  latter  part  of  Elaine's  career  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  he  delivered  one  of 
his  most  remarkable  speeches,  which  was  on  a 
proposition  to  extend  amnesty  to  Jefferson  Davis. 
The  speech  was  made  with  all  the  vigor  and  en 
ergy  of  his  character,  and  its  unexpectedness, 
coming  as  it  did  like  a  fierce  gale  sweeping 
down  from  the  North,  so  staggered  and  dis 
mayed  the  advocates  of  this  variety  of  "  magna 
nimity  "  that  they  hated  the  speaker,  while  they 
were  forced  to  admire  the  audacity  of  his  attack 
and  the  spirit  with  which  it  was  made.  The  ad 
dress  is  generally  known  as  the  "  Andersonville 
Speech,"  because  Elaine  did  not  so  much  object 
to  Davis's  political  rehabilitation  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  the  rebel  chieftain  as  because  in  his 
capacity  as  President  of  the  Confederacy  he  had 
sanctioned,  authorized,  and  approved  the  atroci 
ties  practised  on  Union  prisoners  confined  in  the 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  297 

Andersonville  prison.  Elaine's  picture  of  the 
horrors  of  Andersonville,  materials  for  which 
were  drawn  from  rebel  archives,  as  well  as 
from  the  history  of  the  time,  was  one  of  fright 
ful  vividness  and  realism.  He  quoted  from  doc 
uments  written  by  Union  and  by  secession  offi 
cials,  and  from  the  testimony  of  persons  who  may 
be  regarded  as  impartial,  to  prove  the  truth  of 
the  allegations  which  he  brought  not  only  against 
the  management  of  the  prison  pen,  but  against 
the  rebel  chieftain  himself.  The  argumentative 
portion  of  his  speech  is  included  in  these  words : 
"  It  is  often  said  that  we  shall  lift  Mr.  Davis 
again  into  great  consequence  by  refusing  him 
amnesty.  That  is  not  for  me  to  consider.  I 
only  see  before  me,  when  his  name  is  presented, 
a  man  who  by  a  wave  of  his  hand,  by  a  nod  of  his 
head,  could  have  put  an  end  to  the  atrocious 
cruelties  at  Andersonville.  Some  of  us  had  kins 
men  there,  many  of  us  had  friends  there,  all  of 
us  had  countrymen  there.  I  here  protest,  and 
shall  with  my  vote  protest,  against  calling  back 
and  crowning  with  the  honors  of  full  American 
citizenship  the  man  who  stands  responsible  for 
that  organized  murder."  The  bill  did  not  pass. 

The  episode  of  the  so-called  Mulligan  letters 
might  be  passed  over  in  silence,  but  it  is  well 
enough  to  recall  the  facts.  A  certain  package 
of  missing  letters  was  the  focal  point  around 
which  raged  a  bitter  controversy.  These  were 
in  Elaine's  possession ;  and  that  was  a  dramatic 
scene  in  the  House  when,  having  reached  the 
close  of  a  preliminary  statement  of  the  case 


298 


STATESMEN 


against  him,  he  seized  the  package  of  letters  ly 
ing  on  his  desk  and  brandished  them  in  the  face 
of  the  House.  It  had  been  said  that  the  letters 
were  destroyed  and  that  he  would  never  dare 
to  have  them  printed.  He  now  proceeded  to 
have  them  read,  one  by  one,  and  they  were  duly 


Mr.  Blaine's  Home  at  Augusta,  Me. 

spread  upon  the  records  of  the  day's  doings. 
Not  to  go  more  minutely  into  this  unhappy  busi 
ness,  it  may  be  said  that  the  investigating  com 
mittee  finally  dropped  the  whole  inquiry  and 
failed  to  write  out  any  opinion  upon  the  testi 
mony  taken  or  to  make  an  official  report  upon 
a  matter  which  for  a  time  aroused  the  atten- 


JAMES  0.  ELAINE  299 

lion    not   only    of   Congress    but   of   the    whole 
country. 

Exactly  when  the  Presidential  ambition  began 
to  take  shape  in  the  mind  of  Elaine  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  say,  but  he  first  appeared  as  a  pronounced 
candidate  in  the  Republican  convention  of  1876. 
On  the  first  ballot  he  led  with  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five  votes,  L.  P.  Morton  followed  with  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five,  Benjamin  H.  Bristow 
one  hundred  and  thirteen,  Roscoe  Conkling 
ninety-nine,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  sixty-one,  and 
three  other  candidates  had  seventy-two  votes  all 
told.  After  seven  ballots  Rutherford  B.  Hayes 
was  nominated,  having  five  votes  more  than  was 
necessary  for  a  choice.  It  was  at  this  convention 
that  a  phrase  which  subsequently  became  cele 
brated  was  first  applied  to  Blaine.  Robert  G. 
Ingersoll,  in  the  course  of  his  speech  nominating 
Blaine,  said :  "  Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a 
plumed  knight,  James  G.  Blaine  marched  down 
the  halls  of  the  American  Congress  and  threw 
his  shining  lance  full  and  fair  against  the  brazen 
foreheads  of  the  defamers  of  his  country  and  the 
maligners  of  his  honor.  For  the  Republican 
party  to  desert  this  gallant  leader  now  is  as 
though  an  army  should  desert  their  general  up 
on  the  field  of  battle."  While  this  convention 
was  in  session  Blaine  remained  in  Washington. 
The  weather  was  excessively  hot,  and  on  the  Sun 
day  previous  to  the  assembling  of  the  conven 
tion,  Blaine,  walking  to  church,  was  prostrated 
by  a  sun-stroke.  lie  did  not  fully  recover  until 
the  work  of  the  convention  was  well  under  way, 


300  STATESMEN 

and  in  the  meantime  reports  of  his  death  were 
circulated  far  and  wide.  It  was  believed  by  his 
devoted  followers  that  this  untoward  casualty 
deprived  him  of  the  nomination,  which  otherwise 
was  easily  within  his  reach. 

Elaine's  first  term  of  service  in  the  United 
States  Senate  was  by  virtue  of  an  appointment 
by  the  Governor  to  fill  a  vacancy.  He  was  sub 
sequently  elected  by  the  Legislature  upon  its 
assembling,  notwithstanding  an  ardent  effort  on 
the  part  of  his  enemies  to  defeat  his  promotion 
to  the  Senate.  When  the  Legislature  assembled 
it  was  found  that  copies  of  the  attacks  made 
upon  him  during  the  Mulligan  controversy  had 
been  mailed  to  all  of  the  members,  and  the  State 
House  was  deluged  with  printed  matter  calcu 
lated  to  prejudice  the  minds  of  the  members 
against  their  stalwart  leader.  This  attempt, 
however,  was  defeated,  and,  curiously  enough, 
Democrats  and  Republicans  united  in  their  choice 
of  Elaine,  who  was  elected  to  the  Senate  by  the 
unanimous  vote  of  the  Legislature,  something 
unprecedented  in  political  history.  In  the  Senate 
his  appearance  was  dreaded  by  some  of  the  more 
conservative  members,  who  were  afraid  that  his 
brilliancy  and  picturesque  method  of  conducting 
debate  would  interfere  with  the  more  solemn  tra 
ditions  of  their  conclave.  They  were,  however, 
speedily  reassured,  and  the  newly  elected  Sena 
tor  from  Maine  took  his  seat  with  becoming 
modesty  and  did  not  for  some  time  participate 
largely  in  the  debates.  His  first  carefully  pre 
pared  speech  as  Senator  was  made  in  opposition 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  301 

to  the  silver  craze,  which  was  then  at  its  height, 
and  he  opposed  the  inflation  theories  of  the  far 
West  with  a  temperate  and  deprecatory  argu 
ment  addressed  to  the  better  judgment  of  the 
people.  He  argued  that  Congress  had  no  more 
power  to  demonetize  silver  than  to  demonetize 
gold,  and  he  advocated  a  policy  of  co-operating 
with  foreign  nations  to  secure  a  uniform  standard 
of  silver  with  gold.  His  speech  went  to  the  root 
of  the  matter,  and  it  is  to  this  day  regarded  as  an 
admirable  exposition  of  a  sound  financial  policy 
to  be  pursued  in  regard  to  maintaining  the  parity 
of  gold  and  silver. 

Another  topic  which  Elaine  took  up  with  much 
zest,  and  in  the  discussion  of  which  he  showed 
the  results  of  profound  thought  and  careful 
study,  was  South  American  trade  with  the  y 
United  States.  In  this  speech  he  outlined  to 
some  extent  the  policy  which  he  pursued  later 
on  when  he  became  Secretary  of  State.  He  ad 
vocated  the  payment  of  subsidies  to  American 
lines  of  steamships  between  the  ports  of  the 
United  States  and  Central  America  and  South 
America.  He  showed  how  the  great  trade  of 
the  countries  to  the  South  of  us  went  to  Europe 
instead  of  coming  to  the  United  States,  and 
he  sketched  a  policy  by  which  a  diversion  of 
this  profitable  trade  could  be  made  to  our  own 
country. 

Elaine  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dential  nomination  in  1880,  Avhen  Garfield  was 
named  by  a  decided  majority.  He  took  the 
stump  for  Garfield,  and  on  the  election  of  that 


302  STATESMEN 

statesman  was  offered  the  post  of  Secretary  of 
State,  which  he  accepted.  It  is  likely  that 
Elaine's  occupation  of  this  high  office  had  some 
influence  upon  the  mind  of  Senator  Conkling, 
who  very  soon  developed  a  hostility  toward 
the  Garfielcl  administration,  which  culminated 
finally  in  the  resignation  of  the  two  New  York 
Senators,  Conkling  and  Platt.  Out  of  this  most 
unfortunate  episode  grew  a  long  and  angry  con 
troversy  which  divided  the  Republican  party 
into  two  factions.  The  bitterness  of  this  dispute 
was  intensified  by  the  failure  of  the  New  York 
Legislature  to  re-elect  Messrs.  Conkling  and 
Platt,  for  they  had  apparently  expected  to  be  re 
turned  to  the  Senate.  In  the  midst  of  this  bitter 
contention  President  Garfield  was  assassinated, 
while  on  his  way  to  a  brief  vacation,  three 
months  after  his  inauguration.  But  during  his 
brief  service  in  the  Cabinet,  Secretary  Elaine 
had  defined  the  foreign  policy  to  be  pursued  by 
the  Garfield  administration,  which  was  as  fol 
lows  :  "  First,  to  bring  about  peace  and  prevent 
future  wars  in  North  and  South  America ;  and, 
secondly,  to  cultivate  such  friendly  commercial 
relations  with  all  American  countries  as  would 
lead  to  a  large  increase  in  the  export  trade  of 
the  United  States.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  peace  on  the  Western  Hemisphere 
that  it  was  determined  to  invite  all  the  independ 
ent  governments  of  North  and  South  America 
to  meet  in  a  peace  conference  at  Washington  on 
March  15,  1882.  The  project  met  with  cordial 
approval  in  South  America,  and  had  it  been  car- 


JAMES  a.  BLAINE  303 

ried  out  would  have  raised  the  standard  of  civ 
ilization,  and  possibly  by  opening-  South  Ameri 
can  markets  to  our  manufactures  would  have 
wiped  out .  $12,000,000  balance  of  trade  which 
Spanish  America  brings  against  us  every  year." 
The  death  of  Garfield  apparently  rendered 
necessary  the  reconstruction  of  the  Cabinet, 
which  resulted  in  Elaine's  being  succeeded  by 
Mr.  Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey, 
and  only  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  Secretary  of  War, 
remained  in  the  official  family  of  President 
Arthur,  who  succeeded  Garfield.  But  even  the 
few  months  which  Elaine  spent  in  the  Cabinet 
at  this  time  were  filled  with  useful  activities. 
The  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty,  relating  to  Ameri 
can  interests  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien,  was  one 
of  the  important  topics  considered  by  Secretary 
Elaine,  and  a  number  of  elaborate  despatches 
were  written  by  him  concerning  our  relations 
with  Mexico,  British  oppression  in  Ireland,  and 
the  union  of  the  Central  American  States  under 
one  confederacy.  Retiring  from  public  life  at 
the  conclusion  of  his  brief  term  of  service  in  the 
Cabinet,  Elaine  removed  to  his  home  in  Maine 
and  addressed  himself  to  the  preparation  of  his 
historical  work,  "  Twenty  Years  in  Congress," 
the  first  volume  of  which  appeared  in  April, 
1884.  This  work,  which  in  some  respects  was 
modelled  upon  Benton's  "  Thirty  Years  in  the 
United  States  Senate,"  covers  a  most  important 
part  of  our  history,  extending  from  Lincoln  to 
Garfield,  with  a  cursory  review  of  the  events 
which  led  up  to  the  American  Rebellion.  It  is 


304  STATESMEN 

in  fact  a  biography  of  the  American  people  and 
a  picture  of  their  progress  through  the  twenty 
years  immediately  after  the  death  of  Lincoln. 

Elaine  was  again  a  candidate  for  the  Presiden 
tial  nomination  before  the  Republican  conven 
tion  which  assembled  in  Chicago  in  1884,  and 
was  nominated  on  the  fourth  ballot,  having  five 
hundred  and  forty-one  votes,  four  hundred  and 
seven  being  necessary  for  a  choice.  The  anti- 
Blaine  elements  had  centred  upon  President 
Arthur  as  their  candidate,  and  it  was  apparent 
that  the  friends  of  Conkling,  and  others  who  had 
all  along  opposed  Elaine's  ambition,  would  not 
heartily  support  Elaine  in  the  contest  which  was 
to  follow.  The  result  of  the  canvass  was  the  elec 
tion  of  Grover  Cleveland,  who  had  been  nomi 
nated  by  the  Democrats.  Various  causes  con 
spired  to  weaken  the  cause  of  Elaine,  one  of 
them  being  the  extraordinary  episode  known  as 
the  "  Burchard  business."  In  an  address  to 
Elaine  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  New  York,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Burchard  spoke  of  the  Democratic 
party  as  the  party  of  "  Rum,  Romanism,  and 
Rebellion,"  and  Elaine's  failure  then  and  there 
to  make  some  response  signifying  his  disapproval 
of  this  statement  undoubtedly  influenced  many 
votes  against  him  in  the  canvass.  It  was  said 
that  Elaine  had  been  called  on  unexpectedly,  and 
while  his  mind  was  concentrated  in  an  effort  to 
frame  something  pertinent  to  say  in  reply  to  the 
address,  he  failed  to  notice  the  singular  phrase 
employed  by  Dr.  Burchard.  The  vote  of  the 
State  of  New  York  determined  the  issue  by  a 


JAMES  G.  BLA1NE  305 

small  plurality.  Of  the  popular  vote,  Elaine  re 
ceived  four  million  eight  hundred  and  fifty-one 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty-one,  and 
Cleveland  had  four  million  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-four  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  votes.  The  result  was  undoubtedly  sorely 
disappointing  to  Elaine,  who  had  in  vain  endured 
the  weariness  and  fatigue  of  a  long  and  exhaust 
ing  campaign.  But  he  speedily  rallied  from  his 
depression,  and  in  an  address  which  he  made  to 
his  fellow-citizens  at  Augusta  he  treated  the  issues 
of  the  campaign  with  fresh  vigor  and  without 
betraying  the  least  annoyance  at  his  defeat. 

Absence  in  Europe  during  a  part  of  the  next 
succeeding  years  prevented  him  from  becoming 
positively  identified  with  the  efforts  which  were 
put  forth  to  nominate  him  again  in  1888.  There 
were  many  contradictory  reports  received  from 
him,  and  although  when  he  was  formally  ap 
proached  and  interviewed  on  the  subject  of  his 
nomination  he  expressed  himself  as  being  out  of 
the  field,  his  tenacious  followers  insisted  that  he 
should  be  regarded  as  a  candidate  for  the  nomi 
nation.  However  this  may  be,  the  outcome  of 
the  national  convention  that  year  was  the  nomi 
nation  of  General  Benjamin  Harrison.  Elaine 
returned  to  the  United  States  and  took  an  active 
part  in  the  canvass,  speaking  in  various  portions 
of  the  country  and  lending  his  powerful  support 
to  the  Republican  nominations. 

On  the  accession  of  General  Harrison  to  the 
Presidency,  Elaine  was  again  appointed  Secre 
tary  of  State,  and  he  proceeded  to  carry  out  his 
20 


306  STATESMEN 

South  American-Central  American  policy  with 
much  vigor  and  doubtless  with  infinite  satisfac 
tion.  As  if  he  realized  the  shortness  of  the  time 
now  left  to  him,  he  undertook  at  once  with  amaz 
ing  vigor  the  execution  of  the  plans  which  had 
been  frustrated  by  the  death  of  Garfield  and  his 
retiring  from  public  life.  Instead  of  a  peace  con 
ference  to  meet  at  Washington,  Elaine  now  pro 
posed  a  Pan-American  Congress,  which  really 
had  the  same  object  in  view,  although  the  scope 
of  the  policy  to  be  considered  was  made  much 
wider.  The  objects  of  the  Pan-American  Con 
gress,  as  officially  declared,  were  to  adopt  meas 
ures  that  should  tend  to  preserve  and  promote  the 
prosperity  of  the  several  American  States,  the 
formation  of  a  customs  and  trade  union,  the  estab 
lishment  of  regular  and  frequent  communication 
between  the  ports  of  the  several  States  in  the 
compact,  the  establishment  of  a  uniform  system 
of  customs  dues,  weights  and  measures,  trade 
marks,  silver  currency,  and  an  agreement  look 
ing  toward  the  arbitration  of  all  questions  and 
disputes  by  an  international  court.  The  princi 
pal  result  of  this  congress  was  the  adoption  of 
a  system  of  trade  reciprocity  with  the  South 
American  and  Central  American  States,  which 
it  is  claimed  has  inured  greatly  to  the  benefit 
of  the  republic  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  likely  that  the  calamities  that  now  over 
took  Elaine  not  only  depressed  his  spirits,  which 
had  always  been  elastic  and  animated,  but  hast 
ened  that  gradual  decay  of  his  physical  powers 
which  eventually  resulted  in  making  his  retire- 


Mr.   Elaine's  Washington    Home,   at    17   Madison    Place,   where    he    Died— Formerly 
the  Seward    Mansion. 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE  309 

ment  from  public  life  absolutely  necessary.  On 
January  15,  1890,  his  oldest  son,  Walker  Elaine, 
who  had  been  his  main-stay  and  support  in  the 
cares  of  State,  died  suddenly.  Within  a  month 
later  his  oldest  daughter,  Alice,  also  died  ;  and 
another  son,  Emmons  Blaine,  died  in  1892.  A 
fe\v  weeks  after  the  death  of  his  daughter, 
Blaine  had  an  attack  of  paralysis  and  was  taken 
to  his  home,  and  during  the  summer  of  1891  was 
unable  to  attend  to  the  affairs  of  the  State  De 
partment.  During  his  absence  many  questions 
of  great  importance  arose  and  were  disposed  of 
by  President  Harrison,  who  was  obliged  to  as 
sume  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  State  to  a  great 
degree  during  the  prostration  of  the  Secretary. 

As  if  pursued  by  adversity  relentlessly,  and  in 
spite  of  all  efforts  to  escape,  his  name  was  pre 
sented  at  the  Republican  convention  of  1892  by 
ill-advised  friends.  It  is  likely  that  the  long  suc 
cessful  statesmen,  now  enfeebled  by  disease  and 
made  irritable  and  somewhat  vacillating  by  the 
misfortunes  which  had  so  persistently  followed 
him,  was  not  sufficiently  able  to  control  his  ar 
dent  admirers  in  the  national  convention.  At  any 
rate,  although  he  had  repeatedly  expressed  his 
determination  not  to  permit  his  name  again  to  be 
used  as  a  Presidential  candidate,  his  adherents 
insisted  in  pressing  it,  and  to  their  inexpressible 
chagrin  and  the  mortification  of  all  sincere 
admirers  of  Secretary  Blaine,  he  was  defeated. 
Harrison  was  nominated  by  a  very  handsome 
majority.  During  the  hurly-burly  which  was 
caused  by  the  attempt  to  force  Blaine  into  the 


310  STATESMEN 

convention,  apparently  against  his  will,  he  per 
emptorily  resigned  his  post  as  Secretary  of  State 
and  left  Washington  for  his  summer  home  in 
Maine.  This  step,  while  it  could  not  be  thor 
oughly  understood  by  politicians  and  public  men, 
was  generally  regarded  by  the  people  at  large  as 
a  sign  of  disagreement  between  the  President 
and  the  Secretary  of  State.  But  whatever  were 
the  interior  facts  of  this  curious  complication,  it 
is  certain  that,  later  on,  the  reconciliation  of 
these  two  men  was  complete.  Elaine  returned 
to  Washington  after  the  election  of  Grover 
Cleveland  in  1892,  but  was  in  feeble  condition, 
unable  to  see  any  of  the  devoted  friends  who 
besieged  his  house,  imploring  information  as  to 
his  real  condition.  Contradictory  reports  of  his 
health  were  circulated,  but  he  grew  weaker  day 
by  day,  and  died  quietly,  January  27,  1893. 
^  The  personality  of  James  G.  Elaine  was  the 
most  conspicuous  and  remarkable  of  any  in 
American  public  life  during  the  period  immedi 
ately  succeeding  the  close  of  the  Rebellion  and 
ending  with  his  own  career.  His  alluring  quali 
ties  were  many.  In  person  he  was  command 
ing  ;  his  figure  was  strikingly  handsome  and  was 
sure  to  attract  attention  anywhere.  His  manner 
was  winning  and  affable,  and  he  impressed  those 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact  as  possessing  a 
kindly  individual  interest  and  sympathy.  His 
wonderful  memory  for  faces  and  remote  personal 
incidents  aided  him  materially  in  maintaining 
this  pleasing  character.  He  doubtless  studied  to 
commend  himself  to  those  whose  esteem  he  de- 


JAMES  G.  ELAINE  311 

sired  to  win.  Illness  and  grief  impaired  these 
qualities  at  the  last ;  but  he  will  always  be  re 
membered  by  the  hosts  who  admired  him  as 
"the  magnetic  man  froip^Main^" 

In  debate  he  was  aggressive,  dashing,  and  au 
dacious.  He  was  quick  to  discern  the  weak 
points  in  the  harness  of  an  adversary,  and  by 
his  incessant  and  sharp  attacks  he  sometimes 
worried  an  antagonist  to  the  verge  of  despera 
tion.  Preserving  his  own  good  temper  and 
coolness,  he  would  contrive  to  goad  an  adver 
sary  with  repeated  flights  of  barbed  arrows  of 
rhetoric  which  were  exasperating  to  the  last  de 
gree.  Yet  withal  he  was  a  generous  gladiator 
and  he  never  took  a  mean  advantage  of  an  oppo 
nent,  but  readily  conceded  every  point  that  was 
fairly  made  against  himself.  His  studied  ora 
tions,  of  which  there  are  several  on  record,  were 
calm,  lofty  in  tone,  and  worthy  of  a  high  place 
in  American  literature.  His  memorial  address, 
pronounced  in  the  national  Capitol  by  invita 
tion  of  Congress,  on  the  death  of  Garfield,  while 
it  is  not  free  from  small  defects,  may  be  regarded 
as  a  fair  example  of  Elaine's  more  elaborate  form 
of  oratory. 

In  conversation  he  was  brilliant  and  versatile^ 
his  range  of  reading  and  observation  being  very 
wide,  and  his  mind  concerning  itself  with  an 
almost  infinite  variety  of  topics.  His  habit  of 
thought  was  rapid  and  his  conclusions  usually 
intuitive  and  generally  correct.  In  public  speak 
ing  his  voice  was  ringing,  and  it  had  a  certain 
penetrative  quality  that  has  been  called  "  me- 


312  S  TA  T  ESN  EN 

tallic."  His  oratory  was  argumentative  and  illus 
trative,  rather  than  eloquent  and  sentimental; 
and  his  propositions  were  always  put  forth  with 
a  lucidity  and  homeliness  of  application  that 
gave  to  Lincoln's  speeches  their  chief  charm. 

He  was  a  tremendous  worker,  and  although 
he  found  it  necessary,  especially  in  his  later 
years,  to  employ  a  secretary  and  amanuensis,  he 
never  dictated  any  part  of  his  voluminous  work 
except  that  which  was  purely  narrative.  It  was 
this  close  application  to  study  and  writing 
which,  added  to  the  severe  mental  strain  of  an 
arduous  and  often  stormy  life,  shortened  the 
number  of  his  days  and  hastened  the  collapse 
that  finally  overtook  him  while  he  was  yet  only 
in  the  sixty-third  year  of  his  age,  thus  closing 
the  career  of  the  most  brilliant  statesman  of  his 
generation. 


James  A.  Garfield. 


XL 

JAMES   A.  GARFIELD. 

INT  his  memorial  oration  on  Garfield,  Elaine 
quoted  the  words  in  which  Webster  described 
the  place  where  the  elder  members  of  the  Web 
ster  family  were  born — "  a  log  cabin  raised 
amid  the  snow-drifts  of  New  Hampshire."  The 
orator  then  said :  "  With  requisite  change  of 
scene,  the  same. words  would  aptly  portray  the 
early  days  of  Garfield.  The  poverty  of  the 
frontier,  where  all  are  engaged  in  a  common 
struggle,  and  where  a  common  sympathy  and 
hearty  co-operation  lighten  the  burdens  of  each, 
is  a  very  different  poverty — different  in  kind, 
different  in  influence  and  effect — from  that  con 
scious  and  humiliating  indigence  which  is  every 
day  forced  to  contrast  itself  with  neighboring 
wealth  on  which  it  feels  a  sense  of  grinding  de 
pendence.  The  poverty  of  the  frontier  is  indeed 
no  poverty  ;  it  is  but  the  beginning  of  wealth, 
and  has  the  boundless  possibilities  of  the  future 
always  opening  before  it." 

When  Garfield  was  elected  United  States 
Senator  from  Ohio,  in  January,  1880,  President 
Hinsdale,  of  Hiram  College,  Ohio,  made  an  ad 
dress  to  the  students  of  the  institution  appro 
priate  to  the  occasion  when  so  much  honor  had 


314  STATESMEN 

been  conferred  upon  one  who,  as  he  said,  u  had 
been  bell-ringer  and  president"  of  that  college. 
In  the  course  of  his  remarks  President  Hins- 
dale  said :  "  General  Garfield  once  rang  the 
school-bell  when  a  student  here.  That  did  not 
make  him  the  man  he  is.  Convince  me  that  it 
did  and  I  will  hang  up  a  bell  in  every  tree  in  the 
campus  and  set  you  all  to  ringing.  Thomas 
Corwin  when  a  boy  drove  a  wagon,  and  became 
the  head  of  the  Treasury ;  Thomas  Ewing  boiled 
salt,  and  became  a  Senator ;  Henry  Clay  rode  a 
horse  to  the  mill  from  the  Slashes,  and  he  be 
came  the  Great  Commoner  of  the  West.  But  it 
was  not  the  wagon,  nor  the  salt,  nor  the  horse  that 
made  these  men  great.  These  are  interesting 
facts  in  the  lives  of  these  illustrious  men.  They 
show  that  in  our  country  it  has  been  and  still  is 
possible  for  young  men  of  ability,  energy,  and 
determined  purpose  to  rise  above  lowly  condi 
tions  and  win  places  of  usefulness  and  honor. 
Poverty  may  be  a  good  school ;  straitened  cir 
cumstances  may  develop  power  and  character ; 
but  the  principal  conditions  for  success  are  in 
the  man  and  not  in  his  surroundings." 

The  simple  fact  is  that  American  history,  even 
in  recent  years,  is  full  of  examples  of  personal 
vicissitudes  that  are  dramatic  in  their  sharp  con 
trasts,  and  Garfield's  career  was  so  compact  with 
these  that  after  he  had  passed  through  the  ear 
lier  days  of  his  training  he  rapidly  ascended 
through  several  important  successive  stages. 
Within  six  months  he  was  successively  president 
of  a  college,  State  Senator  of  Ohio,  a  major-gen- 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  315 

eral  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  and  Rep 
resentative  to  the  national  Congress.  As  his  eulo 
gist  has  said,  "  a  combination  of  honors  so  varied, 
so  elevated,  within  a  period  so  brief,  and  to  a 
man  so  young,  is  without  precedent  or  parallel 
in  the  history  of  the  country."  Garfield's  mother 
was  left  a  widow  while  he  was  yet  an  infant. 
She  was  a  woman  of  unusual  energy,  faith,  and 
courage.  She  declared  that  her  children  should 
not  be  separated,  and  she  kept  them  at  home 
together  until  they  were  able  to  take  care  of  them 
selves.  As  President  Hinsdale,  in  the  address 
above  quoted,  says  of  young  Garfield,  his  life  did 
not  materially  differ  from  the  lives  of  his  neigh 
bors'  boys.  "  He  chopped  wood,  and  so  did 
they  ;  he  hoed,  and  so  did  they ;  he  carried  but 
ter  to  the  store  in  a  little  pail,  and  so  did  they. 
Other  families  that  had  not  lost  their  heads  nat 
urally  shot  ahead  of  the  Garfields  in  property, 
but  such  differences  counted  for  far  less  then 
than  they  do  now."  While  yet  a  lad,  the  desire 
of  the  youngster  to  earn  a  little  money  led  him 
to  become  a  boatman  on  the  Ohio  Canal,  which 
passed  within  a  short  distance  of  the  Garfield 
farm.  He  discharged  the  humble  duties  of  his 
place  with  so  much  fidelity  and  diligence  that  he 
attracted  the  attention  of  his  superiors  and  was 
promoted  to  the  loftier  position  of  steersman  of 
a  barge. 

After  about  eighteen  months  of  this  sort  of 
labor,  laying  by  as  much  as  he  could  of  his  small 
earnings,  he  took  a  step  forward  and  shipped  as 
sailor  on  one  of  the  schooners  plying  on  Lake 


316 


STATESMEN 


Erie.  Illness  compelled  him  to  relinquish  this 
mode  of  life,  and  he  returned  home  and  confided 
to  his  mother  his  ambitious  plans  for  the  future. 
He  had  already  acquired  an  elementar}'  knowl 
edge  of  common  branches  of  education,  and  now 
resolved  to  build  a  loftier  structure  for  him 
self.  With  the  small  savings  that  were  within 
his  reach,  and  by  his  mother's  assistance,  he  be 
gan  a  course  of  study  at  an  obscure  institution  in 
a  small  country  village  not  far  from  Orange,  O. 


Garfield's  Boyhood  Home. 

Young  Garfield  and  his  room-mate,  too  poor  to 
pay  their  board  in  the  village,  rented  a  room  in  an 
old  frame  building  not  far  from  the  academy  and 
there  did  their  own  cooking  and  house-keeping 
in  the  most  primitive  way  while  they  imbibed 
elements  of  knowledge  at  the  Pierian  spring 
which  gushed  forth  in  the  Geauga  Academy. 
But  the  future  President  had  a  stout  heart  and  a 
determined  will,  and  he  applied  himself  with 
honest  and  faithful  toil  to  the  task  which  he  had 
set  before  him.  He  found  work  among  the  car- 


.TAMES  A.  GARFIELD  317 

penters  of  the  village,  and  spent  his  mornings, 
evenings,  and  Saturdays  in  the  shops,  where  will 
ing  hands  were  held  out  to  give  the  boy  a  lift 
along  his  rugged  road.  During  the  winter  he 
taught  a  district  school,  and  thus  added  a  little  to 
his  income.  And  so  for  several  years,  teaching 
in  the  winter,  working  at  the  carpenter's  bench  at 
odd  times,  and  attending  the  academy  during  the 
fall  and  spring  terms,  he  was  able  to  secure  the 
training  necessary  for  a  highet  collegiate  course. 
He  was  a  tall,  muscular,  fair-haired  country  lad, 
browned  by  wind  and  exposure,  sound  in  every 
fibre  of  his  body,  a  strong  athlete,  a  good  student, 
and  a  great  favorite  with  his  associates. 

In  the  fall  of  1854  Garfield  was  admitted  to  the 
junior  class  of  Williams  College,  Williamstown, 
Mass.,  his  previous  studies  having  been  sufficient 
ly  thorough  to  enable  him  to  skip  the  fresh 
man  and  sophomore  courses.  It  is  a  matter  of 
record  that  the  polished  young  students  among 
whom  he  was  now  thrown  were  disposed  to  look 
somewhat  contemptuously  on  the  rough  Ohio 
carpenter  and  farmer's  boy  who  had  ventured 
into  their  company.  Rude  remarks  and  ruder 
treatment  he  bore  with  patience,  high-spirited 
though  he  was ;  and  without  regarding  the 
slights  and  taunts  that  were  occasionally  tossed 
at  him,  he  devoted  himself  with  energy  to  his 
studies,  and  very  speedily  acquired  a  reputation 
for  scholarship  far  above  that  of  any  of  his  fellow- 
students.  When  he  graduated,  in  1856,  he  car 
ried  off  the  honors  of  his  class  in  metaphysics,  a 
distinction  of  great  merit.  Three  years  later  (in 


318  STATESMEN 

1859)  Garfield  was  nominated  for  State  Senator 
by  the  Anti-Slavery  party  of  Portage  and  Summit 
Counties,  O.,  and  was  elected  by  a  handsome 
majority.  He  had  previously  taken  part  in  the 
political  campaigns  of  the  region  and  was  already 
pretty  well  known  as  a  stump-speaker.  He  had 
meanwhile  been  chosen  president  of  the  Hiram 
Eclectic  Institute,  in  Portage  County,  and  had 
won  additional  fame  for  the  little  institution  of 
which  the  people  of  Northern  Ohio  were  already 
very  proud. 

When  the  slave-holding  States  of  the  South 
began  to  secede  from  the  Union  during  the  win 
ter  of  1860-1,  Garfield's  patriotism  was  fired  to 
fervent  heat,  and  he  took  every  occasion  to  speak 
eloquently  and  vigorously  in  favor  of  a  prompt 
exercise  of  the  right  of  the  General  Government 
to  coerce  the  so-called  seceded  States.  The 
Union,  he  argued,  was  meant  to  be  perpetual, 
and  secession  was  to  be  firmly  and  finally  blocked 
by  the  power  of  the  Federal  Government. 

Garfield  was  early  in  the  field  when  the  war 
-  began,  and  at  the  head  of  a  regiment  of  brave 
Ohio  soldiers  he  was  assigned  to  duty  as  an  in 
dependent  force  in  Eastern  Kentucky.  His  first 
task  was  to  check  the  advance  of  General  Hum 
phrey  Marshall,  who  was  marching  down  the  Big 
Sandy  River  with  the  intention  of  co-operating 
with  other  rebel  forces  in  Kentucky  and  precipi 
tating  the  State  into  secession.  The  young  col 
lege  president  was  entirely  unversed  in  the  art 
of  war,  but,  as  he  afterward  expressed  himself, 
knew  just  enough  of  military  science  to  measure 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD 


319 


the  extent  of  his  ignorance.  With  a  handful  of 
men  he  was  obliged  to  march  in  the  rough 
winter  weather  of  1861  into  a  strange  country, 
among  a  hostile  population,  to  confront  a  largely 
superior  force  under  the  command  of  a  gradu 
ate  of  West  Point  who  had  already  seen  ser 
vice.  Like  many  another  patriotic  civilian  un- 


The  Garfield  Monument  at  Washington. 

acquainted  with  military  strategy  and  tactics, 
Garfield  plunged  into  the  fight  and  imparted  to 
his  raw  and  undisciplined  troops  a  good  measure 
of  his  own  personal  courage.  He  rallied  his 
little  column,  and  to  the  consternation  and  as 
tonishment  of  the  rebel  force  opposed  to  him, 
he  checked  their  advance,  routed  their  column, 
and  swept  from  an  important  territory  the  rising 


320  STATESMEN 

tide  of  the  rebellion.  With  less  than  two  thou 
sand  men,  and  without  cannon,  he  had  met  an 
army  of  five  thousand  and  had  driven  Marshall's 
forces  from  point  to  point  and  finally  had  turned 
the  stream  of  military  invasion.  His  subsequent 
career  in  the  army,  which  was  not  a  long  one, 
was  brilliant,  effective,  and  worthy  of  the  high 
praise  which  he  received  from  his  superiors. 
In  1863  he  was  assigned  to  the  responsible  post 
of  chief  of  staff  to  General  Rosecrans,  at  the 
head  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  He  very 
speedily  manifested  his  hostility  to  slavery,  and 
incurred  the  ill-will  of  some  of  his  associates 
who  were  yet  disposed  to  regard  American 
slavery  as  a  sacred  thing.  On  one  occasion  a 
fugitive  slave  took  refuge  in  the  Union  ranks, 
and  the  division  commander  wrote  a  mandatory 
order  to  General  Garfield  to  hunt  out  the  fugi 
tive  and  deliver  him  to  the  custody  of  his  owner. 
Garfield  endorsed  on  the  order,  with  great  de 
liberation,  the  following  extraordinary  sentence : 
"  I  respectfully  but  positively  decline  to  allow 
my  command  to  search  for  or  deliver  up  any  fu 
gitive  slaves.  I  conceive  that  they  are  here  for 
quite  another  purpose.  The  command  is  open 
and  no  obstacles  will  be  placed  in  the  way  of 
search."  That  fugitive  slave  was  not  returned. 
While  Garfield  was  fighting  in  the  field,  new 
and  unexpected  honors  fell  to  his  lot.  The  en 
ergy  and  tact  with  which  he  had  allayed  the 
political  dissensions  that  had  arisen  in  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland,  his  military  prowess,  and 
his  skill  in  discipline  were  rewarded  successively 


JAMES  A.  GAHFIELD  32 L 

by  commissions  as  brigadier-general  and  major- 
general,  his  last  promotion  being  given  him  for 
gallant  and  meritorious  conduct  in  the  battle  of 
Chickamauga.  When  the  Army  of  the  Cumber 
land  was  reorganized  under  the  command  of 
General  Thomas,  Garfield  was  offered  one  of  its 
divisions ;  but  meanwhile  he  had  been  chosen  a 
Representative  in  Congress  from  his  own  dis 
trict  in  Ohio,  and  after  seeking  the  advice  of 
President  Lincoln  and  Secretary  Stanton,  he  de 
cided  to  accept  the  post  of  Congressman,  and 
resigned  his  commission  of  major-general  De 
cember  5,  1863,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  two  days  later.  He  had  just 
completed  the  thirty-second  year  of  his  age. 

In  the  trying  career  of  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  Garfield  showed  him 
self  a  good  parliamentary  orator  and  an  admi 
rable  debater.  He  differed  from  most  parliamen 
tary  leaders  in  that  a  certain  bonhomie  natural 
to  this  vigorous  young  Westerner  was  mingled 
with  scholarly  refinement  and  polish  not  usual  in 
the  lower  House  of  Congress.  He  spoke  so 
readily  that  he  was  frequently  importuned  by 
his  fellow-members  to  aid  them  in  measures 
which  they  brought  before  the  House,  and  per 
haps  spoke  too  often  for  his  own  fame.  One 
writer  says :  "  His  superior  knowledge  used  to 
offend  some  of  his  less  learned  colleagues.  At 
first  they  thought  him  bookish  and  pedantic, 
until  they  found  how  useful  was  his  store  of 
knowledge,  and  how  pertinent  to  the  business  in 
hand  were  the  drafts  he  made  upon  it."  It  must 
21 


322  STATESMEN 

be  admitted  that  Garfield's  classic  and  literary 
allusions  seemed  somewhat  out  of  place  to  those 
who  listened  to  the  debates  from  the  gallery  of 
the  House  and  heard  him  quote  ancients  and 
moderns,  to  the  infinite  weariness  of  many  of  his 
associates,  who  never  heard  of  Juvenal,  and  to 
whom  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge  were  stran 
gers.  Elaine,  in  his  eulogy,  says  of  Garfield  : 
"  He  perhaps  more  nearly  resembles  Mr.  Seward 
in  his  supreme  faith  in  the  all-conquering  power 
of  a  principle ;  he  had  the  love  of  learning  and 
the  patient  industry  of  investigation,  to  which 
John  Quincy  Adams  owed  his  prominence  and 
the  Presidency  ;  he  had  some  of  those  ponderous 
elements  of  mind  which  distinguished  Mr.  Web 
ster,  and  which  indeed  in  all  our  public  life  have 
left  the  great  Massachusetts  Senator  without  an 
intellectual  peer." 

On  the  various  complicated  and  knotty  ques 
tions  that  grew  out  of  the  process  of  reconstruc 
tion  at  the  end  of  the  civil  war,  Garfield  always 
took  an  advanced  and  radical  position.  He  was 
one  of  the  devoted  band  that  stood  by  Senator 
Wade,  of  Ohio,  in  his  somewhat  brutal  course  as 
member  of  the  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of 
the  War.  Garfield  was  a  moderate  protectionist, 
and  while  he  supported  measures  for  the  pro 
tection  of  American  industries,  habitually  coun 
selled  measures  less  severe  than  some  of  the  more 
ultra  protectionists  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  advocated  with  much  strenuousness.  On 
the  tariff  bill  of  1870  he  said:  "  After  studying 
the  whole  subject  as  carefully  as  I  am  able,  I  am 


324 


STATESMEN 


firmly  of  the  opinion  that  the  wisest  thing  that 
the  protectionists  in  this  House  can  do  is  to 
unite  in  a  moderate  reduction  of  duties  on  im 
ported  articles.  He  is  not  a  faithful  Representa 
tive  who  merely  votes  for  the  highest  rate  pro 
posed,  in  order  to  show  on  the  record  that  he 


voted  for  the  highest  figure  and  therefore  is  a 
sound  protectionist.  He  is  the  wisest  man  who 
sees  the  tides  and  currents  of  public  opinion  and 
uses  his  best  efforts  to  protect  the  industry  of 
the  people  against  sudden  collapses  and  sudden 
changes.  .  .  .  The  great  want  of  industry  is 
a  stable  policy,  and  it  is  a  significant  comment 
on  the  character  of  our  legislation  that  Con- 


tf  A.  GARFIELI)  325 


gress  has  become  a  terror  to  the  business  men 
of  the  country." 

In  July,  1864,  Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio,  and 
Representative  Henry  Winter  Davis,  of  Mary 
land,  united  in  the  publication  of  a  document, 
afterward  famous  as  the  Wade-Davis  manifesto. 
It  was  directed  against  the  reconstruction  policy 
of  President  Lincoln,  as  outlined  in  his  procla 
mation  of  that  month  and  year.  A  reconstruc 
tion  bill,  which  had  been  supported  by  Wade 
and  Davis  and  their  allies,  had  passed  through 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  but  it  failed  to  receive 
the  signature  of  the  President  in  the  closing 
hours  of  Congress,  which  adjourned  July  4,  1864. 
It  was  reported  that  the  Wade  -Davis  mani 
festo  against  President  Lincoln  had  been  writ 
ten  by  Garfield.  The  publication  created  the 
most  intense  excitement  throughout  the  West, 
and  was  vehemently  denounced  by  the  people 
of  the  Western  Reserve,  where  Garfield  had  his 
home.  It  was  regarded  as  an  unkind  and  unjust 
attack  upon  the  beloved  Lincoln,  and  was  re 
sented  bv  sturdy  Republicans  throughout  the 
country.  Just  at  this  time  the  convention  to 
nominate  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  Garfield's 
district  assembled.  Garfield  was  summoned  by 
a  committee  of  the  convention  to  appear  before 
that  body  and  explain  his  standing  in  regard  to 
the  Wade-Davis  manifesto.  He  had  already 
denied  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  letter,  but 
he  appeared  before  the  convention  and  made  a 
speech  which  he  naturally  supposed  would  end 
his  political  career  then  and  there.  He  denied 


326  STATESMEN 

that  he  had  written  the  Wade-Davis  letter,  but 
he  approved  the  document,  defended  the  motives 
of  its  authors,  and  asserted  his  own  right  to  in 
dependence  of  thought  and  action,  and  told  the 
delegates  in  the  convention  that  if  they  did  not 
want  a  free  agent  as  their  Representative,  they 
might  better  look  elsewhere,  for  he  could  serve 
them  no  longer.  So  saying,  he  strode  out  of  the 
convention  hall ;  but  before  he  could  leave  the 
building  a  burst  of  applause,  which  he  imagined 
was  the  signal  of  his  defeat,  broke  upon  his  ears. 
It  was  the  signal  of  his  nomination  by  acclama 
tion. 

Garfield,  as  we  have  said,  was  elected  to  the 
Senate  in  January,  1880,  succeeding  Allen  G. 
Thurman,  whose  term  of  office  expired  March  3, 
1 88 1.  But  before  he  could  qualify  he  was  nom 
inated  for  President  of  the  United  States  in  the 
summer  of  1880  by  the  Republicans  in  their  con 
vention  at  Chicago.  The  nomination  of  Garfield 
was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  men  who  were  asso 
ciated  with  Roscoe  Conkling  in  the  support  of 
General  Grant,  whose  name  was  pressed  upon 
the'  convention  as  a  candidate  for  a  third  term. 
After  a  long  and  somewhat  heated  contest,  Gar- 
field  was  nominated  on  the  thirty-sixth  ballot. 
The  Conkling  element  had  been  defeated  by  this 
choice,  and  in  order  to  conciliate  the  associates 
of  the  Senator  from  New  York,  Chester  A. 
Arthur  was  named  as  candidate  for  Vice-Presi- 
dent.  This  selection,  however,  was  made  with 
out  any  reference  to  the  personal  wishes  of  Sen 
ator  Conkling,  and  it  was  asserted  that  he  took 


JAMKS  A.  GARFIELD  327 

no  part  in  the  convention  after  the  nomination  of 
Gartield. 

The  Presidential  election  of  that  year  resulted 
in  the  choice  of  Garfield  by  a  majority  of  fifty- 
nine  electoral  votes.  In  the  popular  vote  Gar- 
field  had  4,437, 345  ;  General  Hancock,  Democrat, 
had  4,435,015  ;  and  Weaver,  Greenback,  305,931. 
His  inaugural  address  was  a  straightforward, 
business-like,  and  eminently  practical  oration.  It 
was  read  slowly  and  effectively  and  made  an  ex 
cellent  impression  throughout  the  country.  His 
Cabinet  was  as  follows :  Secretary  of  State, 
James  G.  Elaine ;  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
William  Windom  ;  Secretary  of  War,  Robert  T. 
Lincoln  ;  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  William  H. 
Hunt ;  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  S.  J.  Kirkwood ; 
Attorney  General,  Wayne  McVeagh  ;  Postmas 
ter  General,  Thomas  L.  James. 

As  soon  as  the  purposes  of  General  Garfield 
could  be  unfolded,  they  were  shown  to  be  fair, 
just,  and  statesman-like.  He  gave  promises  of 
being  a  safe,  conservative,  and  patriotic  Presi 
dent,  and  his  talents  as  an  administrative  officer 
and  a  legislator  were  likely  to  acquire  for  him 
an  honorable  record  and  enduring  fame.  But  he 
was  very  soon  called  upon  to  face  a  serious  par 
tisan  contest  which  appeared  in  the  Republican 
party.  A  quarrel  arose  over  the  appointments 
to  Federal  office  in  the  State  of  New  York.  This 
unhappy  disagreement  finally  culminated  in  the 
resignation  of  Senators  Conkling  and  Platt,  of 
that  State,  and  their  appeal  to  the  Legislature 
to  approve  their  acts  by  re-electing  them.  Presi- 


328 


STATESMEN 


The   Garfield   Monument  at  Cleveland,  O. 


dent  Garfield,  however,  apparently  having  the 
support  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  pursued 
the  course  which  he  had  marked  out  for  himself 
without  reference  to  the  angry  protests  of  the 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  329 

two  Senators.  He  believed  that  the  true  pre 
rogatives  of  the  executive  office  were  involved 
in  the  issue  which  had  been  raised  against  him, 
and  that  he  would  be  unfaithful  to  his  obliga 
tions  if  he  failed  to  maintain  with  all  their  vigor 
the  constitutional  rights  and  dignities  of  his 
great  office.  In  the  eulogy  so  often  quoted, 
Elaine  said :  "  More  than  this  need  not  be  said  ; 
less  than  this  could  not  be  said.  Justice  to  the 
dead,  the  highest  obligation  that  devolves  upon 
the  living,  demands  the  declaration  that  in  all 
the  bearings  of  the  subject,  actual  or  possible, 
the  President  was  content  in  his  mind,  justi 
fied  in  his  conscience,  immovable  in  his  con 
clusions."  The  sum  and  substance  of  this  mis 
erable  business  was  that  the  two  New  York 
Senators  claimed  the  right  to  defeat  any  nom 
ination  to  office  in  their  State  made  by  the 
President  and  unacceptable  to  themselves.  Out 
of  this  bitter  contention  grew  a  schism  in  the 
party  which  was  long  and  deep.  Washington 
was  confused  with  rumors  of  even  more  serious 
difficulties  between  the  President  and  political 
enemies  in  his  own  party.  In  the  midst  of  this 
clamor,  July  2,  1881,  as  President  Garfield,  ac 
companied  by  Secretary  Blaine,  was  leaving 
Washington  for  a  brief  holiday,  he  was  mur 
derously  fired  upon  by  one  Guiteau,  a  person 
of  then  unknown  antecedents,  who  had  haunted 
the  corridors  of  the  White  House  and  other 
public  places  for  weeks  past.  The  motive  of 
his  crime  has  never  been  fully  understood,  but 
when  arrested  he  exclaimed,  "  I  did  it,  and  want 


330  STATESMEN 

to  be  arrested.  I  am  a  Stalwart,  and  Arthur  is 
President  now." 

The  excitement  throughout  the  country,  and 
we  may  say  throughout  the  civilized  world, 
which  followed  this  dreadful  deed  can  be  likened 
only  to  the  same  state  of  feeling  which  prevailed 
when  Lincoln  was  assassinated  in  1865.  For  a 
time  it  seemed  as  if  the  shock  to  the  public  sen 
sibilities  had  arrested  every  other  thought  save 
that  which  centred  in  Washington,  where  the 
President  was  believed  to  be  slowly  dying.  But 
weeks  of  suspense  passed,  and  the  iron  constitu 
tion  of  the  chief  magistrate  fought  bravely  for 
his  survival.  That  summer  will  long  be  remem 
bered  by  the  American  people  as  one  of  deep 
gloom,  sorrow,  and  anxiety.  The  weather  was 
dry,  hot,  and  oppressive,  and  on  September  6th 
the  dying  President  was  carried  to  the  sea-shore 
at  Elberon,  N.  J.,  where,  after  a  few  more  days  of 
failing  strength  and  intense  suffering,  he  passed 
away.  He  died  on  the  igth  of  September,  and 
was  immediately  succeeded  by  Vice-President 
Chester  A.  Arthur.  A  great  wave  of  grief 
swept  over  the  land,  and  amid  the  lamentations 
of  the  people  the  body  of  Garfield  Avas  carried 
by  a  funeral  train  back  to  his  native  Ohio,  where 
it  was  laid  to  rest  in  a  magnificent  mausoleum, 
built  in  the  suburbs  of  Cleveland. 

Garfield's  person  was  impressive  and  manly ; 
his  stature  was  six  feet ;  he  was  broad-shouldered, 
compactly  built,  and  was  the  personification  of 
physical  strength  and  health.  He  had  an  un 
usually  large  head,  a  dome-like  forehead,  light 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  331 

brown  hair  and  full  beard,  large  light-blue  eyes, 
prominent  nose,  and  ruddy  complexion.  He 
was  plain  in  his  dress,  usually  wore  a  dark  slouch 
hat,  and  presented  the  appearance  of  a  comfort 
able  and  well-to-do  Western  farmer  or  merchant, 
rather  than  the  scholar  and  statesman  that  he  was. 

As  we  have  indicated,  his  training  was  thor 
ough,  and  to  his  indomitable  industry  rather 
than  to  any  remarkable  genius  we  must  attrib 
ute  his  achievements  in  public  life — civil  and 
military.  By  nature  he  was  of  an  affectionate 
disposition,  tenaciously  devoted  to  his  friends 
and  almost  feminine  in  his  attachments  to  those 
who  won  his  confidence  and  affection.  With  cer 
tain  limitations,  he  was  qualified  to  hold  and  ad 
minister  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
American  people,  and  had  he  lived,  doubtless 
would  have  achieved  for  himself  still  greater 
fame  than  that  which  his  untimely  taking-off  has 
possibly  attached  to  a  career  so  tragically  ended. 

The  last  scene  of  all,  his  slow  passage  from 
this  life  to  the  life  beyond,  by  the  borders  of  the 
ocean  at  Elberon,  has  never  been  more  elo 
quently  touched  upon  than  in  the  closing  words 
of  Elaine's  memorial  oration :  "  As  the  end  drew 
near,  his  early  craving  for  the  sea  returned. 
The  stately  mansion  of  power  had  been  to  him 
the  wearisome  hospital  of  pain,  and  he  begged  to 
be  taken  from  its  prison  walls ;  from  its  oppres 
sive,  stifling  air ;  from  its  homelessness  and  its 
hopelessness.  Gently,  silently,  the  love  of  a 
great  people  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  longed- 
for  healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to  die,  as  God 


332  STATESMEN 

should  will,  within  sight  of  its  heaving  billows, 
within  sound  of  its  manifold  voices.  With  wan, 
fevered  face  tenderly  lifted  to  the  cooling  breeze, 
he  looked  out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  chang 
ing  waters;  on  its  fair  sails  whitening  in  the 
morning  light ;  on  its  restless  waves  rolling  shore 
ward  to  break  and  die  beneath  the  noonday  sun ; 
on  the  red  clouds  of  evening  arching  low  to  the 
horizon  ;  on  the  serene  and  shining  pathway  of 
the  stars.  Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read 
a  mystic  meaning  which  only  the  rapt  and  part 
ing  soul  may  know.  Let  us  believe  that  in  the 
silence  of  the  receding  world  he  heard  the  great 
waves  breaking  on  a  further  shore  and  felt  al 
ready  upon  his  wasted  brow  the  breath  of  the 
eternal  morning." 


President  Grover  Cleveland. 


XII. 
GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

WE  have  now  taken  a  brief  survey  of  a  goodly 
company  of  American  statesmen  with  a  view  to 
determine,  so  far  as  possible,  their  assignment  to 
positions  in  the  history  of  their  country,  and  to  dis 
cover  lessons  in  their  careers  for  the  incitement  of 
others  to  persevere  to  attempts  at  achievement. 
These  all  have  passed  over  to  "  the  silent  major 
ity,"  and  the  places  which  they  will  each  occupy 
will  be  fixed  as  time  rolls  on.  As  inflexible  as  the 
laws  of  life,  as  unsparing  as  death,  is  the  verdict 
of  posterity  which  will  assign  to  each  his  ulti 
mate  station  in  the  temple  of  fame.  The  process 
of  determination  began  as  soon  as  each  man 
passed  over  into  the  pale  realms  of  shade.  The 
procession  is  still  moving  onward. 

Grover  Cleveland  is  nearest  to  us  of  these 
worthies  because  he,  the  twelfth  on  the  list,  is 
still  in  the  land  of  the  living.  When  the  men  of 
this  time  are  removed  beyond  the  confusion  of 
immediate  events,  other  generations  will  see  the 
lost  leaders  with  a  clearer  vision.  Their  charac 
ters  will  have  taken  their  places  in  a  true  perspec 
tive.  We  can  only  guess  at  a  venture  what  will 
be  the  dictum  of  that  far-away  jury.  Cleveland, 
born  in  an  obscure  New  Jersey  village,  chris- 


334  STATESMEN 

tened  Stephen  Grover  Cleveland,  the  son  of  a 
rural  clergyman,  gave  no  more  promise  of  fut 
ure  greatness  than  any  of  his  predecessors  in 
the  long  line  of  public  men  whose  characteristics 
we  have  been  considering.  Like  others  of  that 
company,  young  Cleveland  appeared  to  take  to 
the  village  store  as  affording  one  of  the  means 
of  gaining  a  living  that  was  readiest  to  his  hand. 
Like  them,  too,  he  drifted  about  at  first  somewhat 
aimlessly,  and  it  was  not  until  1855,  when  he  was 
past  eighteen  years  of  age,  that  he  really  made 
a  beginning  in  the  career  that  Avas  to  land  him 
finally  in  the  White  House.  He  studied  law  in 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  after  taking  a  turn  in  the  work  of 
assisting  in  compiling  "  a  short-horn  herd-book." 
Vigorous  in  health,  ambitious,  manly,  and  full  of 
courage,  he  showed  himself  in  the  Buffalo  law 
office  to  be  a  youth  of  intelligence  and  decision 
of  character.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1859,  but  he  remained  four  more  years  with  the 
law  firm  where  he  imbibed  the  elements  of  his 
profession,  and  thus  had  eight  good  years  of 
legal  training.  As  office  boy,  student,  and  em 
bryo  barrister,  he  was  thoroughly  rooted  and 
grounded  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  law. 

As  a  young  practitioner  at  the  bar  he  made 
himself  so  favorably  known  to  the  people  of  Erie 
County  that  his  appointment  as  District  Attorney 
in  1863  was  taken  as  a  fit  and  proper  assignment 
to  duty.  So  able  did  he  fill  the  position  to  which 
he  had  been  appointed  that  he  was  nominated  by 
his  party,  the  Democrats,  for  District  Attorney 
in  1865,  but  was  defeated  by  Mr.  L.  K.  Bass, 


GHOVER   CLEVELAND  335 

with  whom,  later  on,  he  was  associated  in  a  firm 
of  lawyers.  At  the  age  of  thirty-three,  in  1870, 
he  was  elected  Sheriff  of  Erie  County,  an  office 
which  he  discharged  with  fairness  and  ability. 
Another  step  in  advance  was  taken  in  1881  when 
he  was  elected  Mayor  of  the  city  of  Buffalo  by 
a  majority  of  thirty-five  hundred.  Buffalo  was 
then  a  Republican  city,  but  local  affairs  had  got 
into  such  a  condition  that  the  election  of  a  mayor 
on  a  non-partisan  ticket  had  become  a  necessity, 
and  Cleveland,  by  his  honest  devotion  to  duty, 
his  strict  integrity  and  public  spirit,  had  so  com 
mended  himself  to  the  people  that  he  was  chosen 
their  candidate  without  regard  to  party  lines. 

The  local  government  of  Buffalo  had  drifted 
into  a  condition  of  slovenliness  and  carelessness 
which  needed  a  strong  hand  to  bring  order  out 
of  chaos  and  to  restore  public  affairs  to  a  basis  of 
economy  and  frugality.  The  lax  way  of  doing 
things  wThich  had  for  years  characterized  the 
administration  of  public  affairs  had  not  only 
aroused  the  indignation  and  dissatisfaction  of 
the  people,  but  had  attracted  the  attention  of 
men  who,  like  Cleveland,  were  determined  that 
a  better  government  was  necessary  to  rescue 
the  municipality  from  extravagance  and  corrup 
tion.  He  became  at  once  so  famous  for  his  veto 
messages  sent  to  the  Common  Council  that  he 
was  generally  known  as  the  "  Veto  Mayor." 
These  messages  are  interesting  as  a  study  of 
municipal  government.  They  touch  problems 
of  daily  occurrence  and  evince  on  the  part  of 
their  author  a  determination  to  do  good  service 


336  STATESMEN 

in  the  cause  of  honest  government.  One  can 
imagine  the  dismay  of  the  happy-go-lucky  pol 
iticians  and  time-servers  who  Avere  confronted 
occasionally  by  a  breezy  message  which  would 
contain  some  such  sentence  as  this :  "  I  cannot 
rid  myself  of  the  idea  that  this  city  government 
in  its  relation  to  the  tax-payers  is  a  business 
establishment,  and  that  it  is  put  in  our  hands  to 
be  conducted  on  business  principles."  Or  this  : 
"  The  extreme  tenderness  and  consideration  for 
those  who  desire  to  contract  with  the  city,  and 
the  touching  and  paternal  solicitude  lest  they 
should  be  improvidently  led  into  a  bad  bargain, 
is,  1  am  sure,  an  exception  to  general  business 
rules,  and  seems  to  have  no  place  in  this  selfish, 
sordid  world,  except  as  found  in  the  administra 
tion  of  municipal  affairs." 

The  administration  of  Mayor  Cleveland,  so  to 
tally  different  from  that  of  any  officer  who  had 
preceded  him,  and  so  unlike  that  of  some  other 
municipal  officers  throughout  the  country,  at 
tracted  the  attention  of  the  people  of  New  York 
to  his  courage  and  his  fidelity  to  public  trusts. 
Accordingly  in  1882  he  was  nominated  by  the 
Democratic  party  their  candidate  for  Governor 
in  opposition  to  Charles  J.  Folger,  then  Secretary 
of  the  United  States  Treasury,  who  had  been 
nominated  for  the  same  office  by  the  Republicans 
of  the  State.  Mr.  Folger  had  been  nominated  at 
the  instance,  it  was  alleged,  of  the  national  ad 
ministration,  and  although  he  was  an  honest,  able, 
and  patriotic  gentleman,  the  voters  of  the  State 
resented  this  alleged  interference  with  their  in- 


0 ROVER   CLEVELAND  337 

dependence.  It  was  claimed,  and  not  without 
reason,  that  the  Federal  administration  had 
forced  Folger  upon  the  party,  with  a  serene  in 
difference  to  all  other  considerations  than  those 
of  expediency  and  in  the  tranquil  expectation 
that  his  nomination  would  be  followed  by  an 
election.  During  this  canvass  the  so-called  In 
dependents  played  a  conspicuous  part,  and  while 
they  were  active  in  their  advocacy  of  the  merits 
of  Cleveland,  the  rank  and  file  and  many  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party  sulked  in  their 
tents  and  stayed  away  from  the  polls.  The  re 
sult  was  the  election  of  Cleveland  by  an  over 
whelming  majority.  Cleveland  received  a  plu 
rality  of  192,854  over  Folger,  and  a  majority  over 
all  candidates  of  151,742. 

He  went  into  office  on  January  i,  1883,  and  his 
inaugural  address  was  apparently  modelled  on 
the  business-like  and  unpretentious  message  of 
one  of  his  predecessors  in  office,  Governor  Til- 
den.  He  paid  marked  attention  to  the  economi 
cal  questions  which  concerned  the  affairs  of  the 
State,  and  manifested  a  determination  to  root  out 
ancient  abuses  and  correct  extravagance  and 
recklessness  of  expenditure  wherever  these  could 
be  found.  His  administration  was  characterized 
by  just  such  reforms  as  might  have  been  expected 
after  such  a  message.  He  vetoed  bills  that  were 
designed,  as  he  thought,  to  block  the  progress  of 
economic  reforms,  and  the  State  administration 
was  really  an  expansion  of  the  principles  that  had 
controlled  his  official  action  while  he  was  Mayor 
of  the  city  of  Buffalo. 
22 


GROVER  CLEVELAND  339 

The  portentous  majority  with  which  he  had 
been  elected  Governor,  and  the  record  which  he 
made  in  that  office  by  his  courage  and  severe 
simplicity  of  administration,  gave  him  great 
vogue  throughout  the  country,  and  his  nomina 
tion  by  the  Democratic  National  Convention  in 
July,  1884,  seemed  to  follow  as  a  matter  of 
course.  Out  of  eight  hundred  and  twenty  votes 
he  received  on  the  first  ballot  six  hundred  and 
eighty-three,  a  two-thirds  vote  being  necessary 
for  a  nomination.  In  the  letter  he  wrote  accept 
ing  the  nomination  for  the  Presidency  he  re 
peated  and  expanded  the  views  he  had  so  often 
enforced  while  in  the  office  of  Mayor  and  Gov 
ernor.  James  G.  Elaine  was  the  nominee  of  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  and  the  result 
of  the  election  in  November  of  that  year  gave 
Cleveland  a  majority  of  thirty-seven  electoral 
votes.  In  a  total  popular  vote  of  10,067,610, 
Cleveland  had  4,874,986,  and  Elaine  had  4,85 1 ,98 1 . 
New  York  was  the  pivotal  State  and  was  carried 
for  Cleveland  by  a  small  plurality.  Its  thirty-six 
electoral  votes,  however,  decided  the  contest  in 
his  favor. 

His  Cabinet  officers  were  as  follows :  Secre 
tary  of  State,  Thomas  F.  Bayard ;  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  Daniel  Manning;  Secretary  of 
War,  William  C.  Endicott ;  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  William  C.  Whitney  ;  Postmaster-General, 
William  F.  Vilas ;  Attorney-General,  Augustus 
H.  Garland;  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  L.  Q.  C. 
Lamar. 

Generally  speaking,  it  may  be  said  that  Cleve- 


340  STATESMEN 

land's  administration  of  the  National  Govern 
ment  was  modelled  on  the  same  general  princi 
ples  which  had  distinguished  his  course  in  the 
minor  executive  offices  which  he  had  filled.  His 
immediate  following  was  largely  made  up  of 
Independents  who  were  pledged  to  civil-service 
reform,  and  Cleveland  entered  the  White  House 
with  renewed  expressions  of  loyalty  to  this 
movement.  It  has  been  forcibly  claimed  on  the 
part  of  his  friends  who  are  also  advocates  of 
civil-service  reform  that  any  deflections  from  the 
path  which  they  had  marked  out  for  him  are  to 
be  charged  to  the  tremendous  pressure  exerted 
upon  him  in  his  high  office  by  the  politicians,  with 
out  whose  aid  he  possibly  could  not  have  reached 
the  Presidential  chair.  The  sincerity  of  his  pro 
fessions  and  the  honesty  of  his  intention  to  carry 
out  the  principles  of  civil-service  reform  have 
been  conceded  even  by  those  who  are  not  polit 
ical  friends  and  who  possibly  have  not  expected 
that  the  party  which  elected  him  can  ever  be  in 
duced  to  surrender  the  ancient  doctrine,  "  To 
the  victors  belong  the  spoils." 

During  his  first  administration  he  came  in 
conflict  with  many  influential  members  of  his 
party  who  insisted  that  the  Republican  office 
holders  should  be  removed  indiscriminately  and 
their  places  filled  with  Democrats  of  undoubted 
party  loyalty.  Among  other  important  events 
which  marked  his  administration  was  the  naval 
expedition  for  the  protection  of  American  inter 
ests  in  Aspinwall  when  that  city  was  burned  by 
the  revolutionists  in  1885.  The  encroachment 


GROVEK   CLEVELAND  341 

of  cattle  companies  and  ranchmen  upon  certain 
partly  vacated  lands  belonging  to  the  Indian 
Territory  formed  another  vexatious  and  compli 
cated  problem  which  was  solved  by  the  deter 
mined  action  of  the  President,  who  resisted  the 
pleadings  of  the  squatters  and  ordered  their  im 
mediate  vacation  of  the  lands  which  they  were 
holding  without  lawful  title.  During  the  same 
term  a  discussion  arose  between  himself  and  the 
Senate  in  regard  to  the  confirmation  of  per 
sons  nominated  to  places  of  emolument  and  trust. 
The  Senate  demanded  the  production  of  papers 
on  which  suspensions  and  removals  had  been 
ordered.  The  President  took  the  ground  that 
these  were  not  public  but  private  documents, 
and  should  not  be  placed  on  the  files  of  the  Sen 
ate.  After  a  somewhat  acrimonious  discussion, 
the  Senate  virtually  receded  from  its  position  and 
most  of  the  persons  nominated  were  confirmed 
without  more  ado.  An  attack  upon  the  Chi 
nese  at  Rock  Springs,  Wyo.,  was  another  of  the 
unfortunate  complications  which  attended  Presi-. 
dent  Cleveland's  administration,  and  the  Presi 
dent,  somewhat  at  variance  with  the  precon 
ceived  notions  of  his  party,  took  the  view  that  the 
United  States,  while  not  bound  by  international 
law  to  pay  for  loss  of  life  or  property  by  China 
men  in  the  United  States,  should  pay  an  indem 
nity  to  the  sufferers  and  their  families.  This 
was  voted  by  Congress.  When  further  anti- 
Chinese  disturbances  occurred  in  Oregon  and 
other  far  Western  States,  he  ordered  out  the 
military  and  expressed  his  determination  to  pro- 


342 


STATESMEN 


tect  the    Chinese  at   all    hazards,  so   far  as  the 
power  of  the  government  should  permit. 

"  The  Veto  Mayor  "  of  Buffalo  in  the  Presidency 
exercised  his  power  to  check  abuses  and  extrav 
agant  expenditures  with  the  same  decision  that 
had  previously  characterized  his  administration. 
During  the  first  session  of  the  Congress  which 
met  next  after  his  inauguration  he  vetoed  one 


Gray  Gables,  Mr.  Cleveland's  Summer   Home   at   Buzzard's   Bay. 

hundred  and  fifteen  of  the  nine  hundred  and 
eighty-seven  bills  that  had  passed  both  Houses 
and  were  laid  before  him.  Of  these  one  hundred 
and  two  were  private  pension  bills,  and  others 
were  for  the  erection  of  public  buildings  and 
for  other  purposes  requiring  an  outlay  of  pub 
lic  money.  A  river  and  harbor  improvement 
bill,  appropriating  a  vast  sum  of  money,  was  se 
verely  criticised  by  the  President,  but  in  conse 
quence  of  its  voluminousness  and  the  necessity 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

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